Beauty & the Peoplebuster
by GhostDragoness
Summary: Maria Hecate was an average city girl, with everything her heart desired; but lately, her ex-boyfriend tries to force Maria back into his life, and Maria dreams of a monster that would often meet in her nightmares, to tell of her future yet to come. Soon afterwards, Maria finds herself in a freak storm, taking her into a realm... ruled by the dead... and the Peoplebusters.
1. Prologue: Once Upon A Midnight Dreary

**_Prologue: Once Upon A Midnight Dreary…_**

The streets were much darker than all of the night itself; every building and high towers rot and deteriorate to the core of their own structure, bats and ravens scatter all around the public parks enjoying their most grim of feasts, the air decays of rotting flesh and bones, freezing cold weather changes dramatically from time to time as though it were the regions of space itself, and the fogs have grown thicker and denser every few minutes, making it harder to see where the roads lead; no living soul was anywhere to be seen, and only pure shades of darkness are the daytime and nighttime of this dreary and dismal place of existence.

However, there are in fact only one particular kind of occupants that could live, thrive, and survive in this bleak and gruesome demise… and that is none other… than the dead, itself.

Every single variety of monsters, ghouls, tortured souls and other apparitions, zombies, and mutated creatures all rule this inhumane city that never sleeps; their daily activities are superbly inexplicable, their ways of living are more ghastly than one would imagine, and their particular views of torment and grieve are far more unpleasant than what others believe. And these citizens couldn't be more than happy about it.

But… if there is something wrong in their own graveyard…

Who are they gonna call?


	2. Chapter 1: A Central Life

**_Chapter One: A Central Life_**

Early morning inside a small condominium at 75 Central Park West, lived a young woman who slowly awakens from her long night's slumber, finding herself in the presence of a new dawning day, shining all around Manhattan, itself. She easily sits up, stretching out her arms as she basked in the sunlight which shone through the window curtains just across from her right side of the bed. She then slowly gets up out of her bed, puts on her robe, and finally opens the curtains, looking out her twenty-third story apartment window; the young woman smirked slightly, thinking today was just going to be another typical, ordinary day.

To get her morning started the young woman began to undress her sleeping wear and dress herself into some casual clothes: it was a simple dress she had put on, all in the color of midnight navy blue, with no strings sewn on the top to slip over the shoulders but rather a set of slip through sleeves wrapped around her upper arms, the bottom of the dress is lengthened three inches above her knee caps with a stylish frill designed all around the skirt area, and on the top crevice center of the chest area is a uniquely designed black rose with a small diamond located inside the center of the rose petals. Then the young woman placed on a pair of panty hose and a pair of dark blue high heels with small black bows on the front edge of the opening.

With her clothes put on, the woman prepared her selected belongings for the day; she grabbed her purse, a couple of science books, and she even picked up a copy of a large, old book entitled **_Il Divina Commedia_**written by an Italian author named _Dante Alighieri_, and then the woman finally left her apartment complex.

The first thing she did was calling up the nearest taxi available after she exits the building; the woman boards herself into the vehicle and the driver quickly drove away, down through 8th Avenue. Soon the car stops by at the entrance of a large marble building with an entitlement that read **New York University Science Center**; the young woman exits the yellow car, paid the driver, and finally enters the building.

Inside the five story structure, the woman walks over to the first office of the second floor, where a tall and slender man was seen unpacking and preparing his desk for the day. The woman quietly knocks on the opened door, and spoke with an easily soft tone in her voice.

"Dr. Spengler?"

The tall man turned his head and noticed the woman's presence. He was in fact one of the most notable and smartest man the city knew very well; _Dr. Egon Spengler_ was his name, the _former_ brains of the city's most recent ex-exterminating industry.

"Ah. Miss Hecate, what brings you here today?" He asks with a steady tone.

The young woman replied. "Please call me Maria, sir; I brought over these books from the book shop my boss said you've been wanting to borrow?" The woman handed Egon three large textbooks, while she held onto the Old Italian text to herself.

"Oh yes, I'm glad he remembered. **_The Study of Preserved Quantum Mutations_**, **_Science and Myths of Demon Psychokinesis_**, and the **_Thermodynamics of the Soul_**; yes, these will come in handy just fine, thank you."

Momentarily after Egon placed the books atop his desk, he couldn't help but notice Maria holding the extra book tight in her arms. He asked with a confused tone.

"What book is _that_ you're holding?"

Maria noticed the book in her arms and replied. "Oh. I was on my way over to the book shop to return this."

Egon took the book gently and read over the front hard cover of the text.

"**_The Divine Comedy_**?" Egon asked. "This is a very _heavy_ piece of literature here Miss Hecate - er, Maria - don't you understand the concept of the story?"

Maria explained. "That's why I couldn't put it down when I first brought it home with me; it wasn't just the grim details of Hell that frightened me, but the devotion of this knight, the crusader, _Dante_, who literally went through Hell to save his lover, _Beatrice_, which inspired me the most. And this is just the _first volume_ I've borrowed, so I'm thinking of finding the second book and finish the story today."

"Well there are over three editions of Alighieri's famous poem to be exact, but believe you me it takes more than just a day to read an entire thirty chapter prose like this. Plus, I never thought a young woman such as you to find interest in such a macabre as… well, _this_."

"There's a lot about me you don't know about sweetie." Maria giggled, but then noticed a clock hanging over on the left corner of the office wall, seeing the time to be 10:18 am. "Oh gosh, I'm late for work! I-I'll see you later Dr. Spengler!"

"Oh! Tell your boss I thank him, alright?" Egon replied.

"I will."

So Maria dashes herself out of the science center of the university, and calls up a cab to take her into the downtown area of New York City. There, the taxi stops in front of a small entrance to a tiny shop, entitled **_Ray's Occult Books_**; she walks inside, at first finding no one present in the store, but she continues to walk further into the building and finally sets herself down behind the clerk desk, organizing some of the little office space for customers to come by as they order something.

Momentarily, after Maria clocks in for her shift, a male voice is heard from the right side of the clerk desk, coming from the entrance of a small stairwell located just across the other side of the store.

"Maria, is that you?"

Maria looks over to see a tall figure, who is slightly plumped around the stomach area, looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties, had a rare condition of discolored eyes, and was feeling slightly discontented as he walked down the stairwell. He strolled over to the desk as he continued.

"You were almost fifteen minutes late for work, where were you?"

"I'm sorry Dr. Stantz, I had to stop by at the university to give Dr. Spengler the books he wanted to borrow." Maria explained.

"Oh! Of course, I almost forgot about that."

"- Which, by the way, he thanks you for."

"Oh. Alright then, give him my regards the next time you see him."

Maria nodded in agreement, realizing her boss, _Dr. Ray Stantz_, didn't mean to be harsh toward her; and so, both Maria and Ray went about their business at the moment, working thoroughly to set up and open the book store for the day.

Across the city, meanwhile, around the southeastern section of Tribeca, a very muscular and tall man with a chiseled face and dark brown eyes, and short black hair with a curl to the side was seen walking down the streets with a confident expression on his face. He had just exit the flower shop, holding up a bouquet of lilies and daisies, and then the young man calls out the nearest taxi cab available and tells the driver to take him down to the downtown district of the city.

_Eric A. Wadestone_ was his name; a tall, dark, strong, and handsome brute who only possesses one simple thing in mind: _love_. Indeed, he was in love, with only one certain girl in the entire city, of which he's only known for in the past five years or so actually; and now he's on his way over to see her, and at the same time, if he times the opportune moment just right, he'll be asking her one of the biggest questions of all time.

"So you've been reading that famous Italian poem?" Ray asked. "You know that's a very serious dark piece of Gothic Literature there, are you sure you want to continue reading that?"

Maria giggled. "You sound just like Dr. Spengler when he said something similar, Dr. Stantz. So do you have the second edition here, somewhere?"

"Try looking under the section **_Religious Literature_**; if it's not there, I'll see if I can order it sometime."

While Maria continued to search for the second book of **_The Divine Comedy_**, the door of the book shop opens, and in comes Eric with a pleasing smile on his face as he held the fresh bouquet of flowers behind his back. He looks around at first, noticing the emptiness of the store, until he notices Maria walking over to the clerk's desk with a few books in her hands, ready for possible reservation for customer services. His eyes began to widen with glee as he smothered himself by his gazing over at Maria, and so he starts to strut in a masculine gesture, walking over to the front desk and stops to greet Maria with charm and wit on his face.

"Hello Maria, don't _you_ look beautiful today; is that a new haircut? No. Maybe a new outfit you're wearing? No, it can't be that, either. I know, it's gotta be that perfume you're wearing; see, I knew there was something different about you."

Maria notices the man's awkward presence, and just stared at him with an annoyed look on her face; but she gave a small and gentle smile, and replies with a steady voice. "Eric, if you're trying to be cute and innocent toward me like this, then you're going to have to do _better_ than **_that_**."

"Aw, come on Maria," Eric continued, trying his best to woo Maria with his own charismatic charm. "The least you could do is just give me another chance; how 'bout tonight; you and me, at **_Sardi's_**?"

Maria walks over to one of the shelves across the other side of the bookstore, putting away some of the books she was checking off for customer use. She didn't say another word, at first, nor did she bother to take another look at Eric as he tries to continue persuading her as best as he could.

"Come on Maria, it's about time you take your head out of those books and start concentrating on the most important matter to discuss: _me._" Eric said with a seductive smile on his face as he handed Maria the flower bouquet.

Maria then spoke with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice while she continued her book stacking. "Eric, you know I can't do that; for one thing, _this_ is part of my _job_. And second, I'm never going out with you again after that incident with the Demus brothers back in North Harlem, and third, I should also remind you that we've _broken up_ altogether… for three years now."

Eric just stared at Maria, with his mind blank from her discussion, and despite Maria had told the truth Eric tries again to flatter Maria into going out with him, and at the same time as he didn't notices in between each words he spoke, he starts to mock Maria's interests and her job as he took out a book from the shelf. "Why would you even want to work here anyway? You and I both know there's no such thing as ghosts; this is nothing but bullcrap that stupid boss of yours is shoving down your throat. Plus, how can you read these things anyway? Doesn't this stuff give you nightmares or something? I mean, what the heck is _this_ supposed to be?"

Maria looks at the picture in which Eric was talking about and just stared at him with an annoyed look on her face. She replies though, correcting Eric's question.

"That's just a simple depiction of an angel."

Eric looks back over at the picture and then realized the book he was holding up turned out to be a simple children's book about guardian angels. He then quickly throws the book to the side, pretending he didn't even picked it out of the shelf in the first place.

Maria shook her head as she finished sorting the bookshelf and placed the children's book back in its place. "(Sigh) I think it's time you'd go now Eric, and no thanks." She sighed, and then pushes Eric to the side as she continued to work.

However, Eric was not about to give up. He quickly runs over to the front of her and grabs her by the waist and tries to swoon her into his charms. "Maria, baby, you know how much this means to me - err, _us_, actually; how about this, you and me in the public park tonight? How about we take a little boat ride on the lake, all alone? Ooh, you and I could do a little _you-know-what_ after dinner at _my_ place; know what I mean, you know what I mean - ?"

Maria pushes Eric aside once more, nearly readying herself to slap him. "For the final time, _no_, Eric! I've got to get back to work."

Then, Eric grabs Maria once more, this time with a little force into kissing her, but kept his charisma at bay. "Okay, but how about a quick one for the road; you know you wa -"

Suddenly, Maria finally smacks Eric on his face and forcefully pushes him away, nearly making him knock over a book shelf within a few feet.

"I said **_NO_******Eric;" Maria screamed once more. "What part of it don't you understand?!"

With all this racket going on, Ray Stantz came over to see if he could stop the whole charade before it would get worse.

"What's going on here?!" He said with a combined tone of worry and irritation.

Ray then notices Eric's presence and picks him up to his feet, but then realizes he had been hearing bits of the conversation and sees the fact that Eric had been harassing Maria throughout his visit.

"Sir, if you're not interested in buying an item here," Ray said as he escorted Eric through the store, toward the exit. "Then I suggest you leave the store immediately!"

Before Eric would finally leave, he insults the former exterminator and at the same time he tries to persuade Maria once more as she had hid herself behind Ray's back for protection. "Stick it _ghosthead_, this is between me and my woman; none 'o yer loser ghost smashing friends are here to back you up; not like that crazy marshmallow stunt you pulled last time. Now, where were we? Oh yeah; so babe, how about tonight - ?"

"- Just. Get. Out, Eric!" Maria cried once more with an annoyed look on her face.

Then, with a slightly disappointed look on his face, Eric leaves the bookstore.

"Oh Dr. Stantz, (sigh) I'm so sorry about all that," Maria apologized with an embarrassing expression as she walked over to the clerk desk. "He just wouldn't leave me alone, even after I had broken up with him awhile back."

"What did you actually _see_ in that guy anyway?" Ray asked curiously as he followed behind.

"Honestly, I was a little desperate at the time; I didn't even know what I was thinking back then, he was so handsome and so attractive, we even started out well after the first few dates and onward. Until recently, that is. There was a side of him I didn't even see at first; he started to turn obsessively love stricken towards me (in an extremely creepy way), he would once in a while brag about how we should get married in a week or so after I go on a date with him, he's often crude and arrogant to most everyone when we're out, and then after that fiasco in North Harlem a few years back… (sigh) I finally came to my senses and dumped him."

"Mm, after everything you just said it sounds like you've had a pretty difficult relationship; but it didn't look like _he_ got the picture."

"No. Eric just thinks that the term _'dumped'_ is just another word for _'we're still together forever, baby'_."

A quick moment of silence soon filled the air as Ray and Maria took a break from the conversation, and at the same time Maria was finishing a quick paperwork on a customer's reserved copy of **_The Life and Death of Rasputin_**.

"Oh Dr. Stantz, what am I gonna do to keep him out of my life?" Maria asked once more as she finally sat down on the desk chair. "I mean, he was never even meant for me to begin with. Why can't I be with someone who's _different_ than me?"

"What do mean by that?" Ray asked with a confused tone.

"Well, that is, I mean someone who's… I don't know, someone I can be _comfortable with_, someone with a lot of spunk, who's not afraid of anything out of the ordinary, who understands and appreciates me, someone I can actually fall in love with, and well, just be something _out of this world_." After Maria's explanation of her own vision of her dream man, she begins to feel a little embarrassed over the way she described her image and notices the small incredulous expression on Ray, who stared at her with his eyes widened with bewilderment.

"Heh… Just a few examples." She said once more while trying to hide her humiliation.

Then Ray asked with a little bit of flirtation in his eyes. "Well Maria, if you're that interested, how about hooking up with a guy like me? Just on a curious note, that is."

Then another quick moment of silence emerged between Maria and Ray afterwards; momentarily the two began to giggle and chuckle over the conversation, until Maria explains once more in a comforting manner, looking into Ray's eyes.

"Don't get me wrong Dr. Stantz, _I do __**like**__ you_, you're so very sweet, kind and compassionate, and the most wonderful man I've ever known; _any_ woman would be so very lucky to have you… but somehow, you're _not_ what **_I'm_** looking for either. I'm sorry Dr. Stantz, it's just how _I_ feel."

Ray replies with a sweet smile on his face. "(Chuckle) Aw, it's alright Maria, I think I'm getting the picture of what you're talking about anyway." At the same time, he starts to walk over toward the nearest bookshelf and begins to take out a few selected choices to go over. "Honestly though, I can't remember the _last time_ I was with someone, but I often feel that someday soon, _I'll_ be meeting someone _different_ than me as well; and don't worry Maria, you'll get to meet your half, and I'll get to meet mine, and it'll feel like crossing the streams - to me that is."

Maria giggled over the last part of Ray's own description of true love.

It was almost closing time later that evening, Maria was finishing an order for the last customer as he checked out a book about hobgoblins and ghouls; Ray is seen meanwhile checking off his clipboard of the newly ordered textbooks on different European legends.

"Here's your change sir; thank you, and we hope you shop again here at **_Ray's Occult Books_**." Maria said as she handed the customer a couple nickels, pennies, and quarters from the register.

As the final customer leaves the store, Maria then hangs up a "Closed" sign on the main door entrance and starts to reorganize some of the bookshelves and cleaned up the front desk. Then afterwards, before Maria would finally leave the store for the evening, Ray catches her attention as he handed hear a large book.

"Oh Maria, before you go, I thought maybe you could have this for awhile." He said, handing Maria the text.

Maria holds up the large book and studies the front cover, reading the title, **_Paradisio_**. It was in fact, another volume of Dante Alighieri's **_The Divine Comedy_**.

Ray replies with a smile. "It actually just came today; I almost forgot that I had a special order on Italian folklore and religious relics."

"Thank you Dr. Stantz, I'm gonna start reading it as soon as I get home." She said.

"You know, you seem to be the only woman I know of that's interested in the supernatural."

"Believe me Dr. Stantz, after hearing the news about you and the rest of your old team defeating a giant marshmallow man, I was even convinced of the existence of ghosts. I remember having an encounter with one just a month afterwards, but when I was about to call you guys, news had been spreading around that you were shutting down the company."

Ray's carefree expression disappears after hearing Maria's reminder of his old company having to shut down unexpectedly. He then forms a more depressing mood, feeling that the best job in the world was now deteriorated, and sensed that it may never happen again.

Maria notices the new mood on her boss's face and tries to cheer him up instead. "Oh! Oh I'm so sorry I brought that up Dr. Stantz; but _believe me_, I thought you guys were truly the best thing that had ever happened in New York, honest; in fact, this town doesn't even know what they did to force you out of business, but _I_ even hope this won't last forever, and that someday you'll rise up again to take care of those ghosts."

Ray looks over at Maria as she comforts him with a little hug, and finally gave a hardly noticeable, but small smirk on his face. Then he replies once more as he readies himself to lock up the book store for the night. "Thanks Maria, I… I needed that. I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"I'll be here, bright and early." Maria spoke once more as she takes her purse and the new Alighieri book with her.

After everything had been settled and organized, Ray locks up the book store, but stay's inside as it was also a built-in apartment, while Maria leaves the shop and went on through the city by cab to her own home.


	3. Chapter 2: Infernal Temptation

**_Chapter Two: Infernal Temptation_**

Darkness shrouds all around this unknown realm; no living soul was present, and only faint whispers of the damned were barely heard in this desolate and miserable place. Maria laid flat atop a stone platform, her eyes were shut tight, and breathed heavily in a tempted manner; she was actually shown all in her nudity, with dark shadow-like elements covering her chest and lower crevice of her feminine parts. She was somehow under a seductive trance, giving in to whatever is controlling her, and is unable to snap herself out of it.

The smoke-like vapors that were still wrapped around Maria's body instantaneously but slowly begins to transform into muscular arms and hands; however these dark mists were still visible as they were a part of the mysterious limbs; and around Maria's legs, more black shadowy fog appeared and extended all around her entire legs, wrapping them tightly to make sure Maria doesn't struggle to get herself away. Then, from over Maria's left shoulder, a pair of glowing eyes appeared clearly within the dark shadows and were the only part of the face that were entirely noticeable throughout the whole transformation; the left one's iris was a very pale shade of taupe with no pupil, making him blind as a bat, and the other eye also had no pupil, but only a very light shade of jade green iris was present, and surprisingly its sight was truly clear as daylight itself. Both of these hauntingly disfigured eyes however, glowed bright like two fiery stars, and they looked very _hungry_ as they looked down on Maria.

Connected to the eyeballs, a male head formed slowly, but only the shadows surrounding him covered the entire identity, so no one, not even Maria, could know of this newly formed beast, but at that moment, Maria kept her own eyes set atop the being's own disfigured eyes as she kept still and continued to embrace in the fiend's company.

Who is he however; and what is his purpose?

It didn't matter; this shadow, this man, this - **_monster_** - _wanted_ Maria all for himself; and by the look of his own maddening eyes, he knew Maria now _belonged_ to him. So, he closes his eyes, reaches over Maria's neck, and begins to softly and seductively kiss her neck, nipping her around the general area for a very long moment. Maria was sexually aroused by this dark being, giving in to all his needs and gruesome desires; she let the beast pleasure and seduce all he could, and _both_ of them enjoyed every single minute of it, not one of them ever saying a single word.

Then, just as this horrible madness continues -

- Maria finally wakes up from the terrible _nightmare_!


	4. Chapter 3: The Winds of Change

**_Chapter Three: The Winds of Change _**

"Sounds like you've either experienced a higher level of precognition during your sleep, or the fact that reading too much of Dante Alighieri's **_Il Divina Commedia_** caused your brainwaves to create graphic images as you slept." Egon explained with a slight smirk on his face.

Maria was seen sitting at Egon's office with a couple strands of medical stickers with wires connected to an analytical device set to the side of her, while Egon himself studied over the analysis of her mind in documentation that was printed out from the printer as it read of Maria's brainwave conditions.

"I'll um admit I did got excited a little after Ray handed me the second book." Maria replied with a slight chuckle in her voice, but continued as she felt a deep feeling of distraught. "This seemed a little… _different_ though; I mean, in my dream, something was clouding over me, I-it didn't want to let go of me, and was keeping me under some kind of... seductive trance. Oh it was just an awful sight to see Dr. Spengler, but I couldn't… somehow help myself, I'll never even forget those eyes as long as I live."

"Yes, when you first walked in here you've mention something about the _eyes_;" Egon asked with a curious tone. "What did they look like by the way?"

Maria explained with a calm tone. "All I remember is… one of them was blind and the other, I think, was sort of a greenish color, and they looked - like they were _hungry_, like a pack of wolves! They were so real to me Egon, like something from an Edgar Allan Poe story or whatever; I mean the entire nightmare felt so **_real_** to me; I couldn't even tell if I was awake or asleep!"

"Calm down Miss Hecate; as I've explained with the readings here, you've probably experienced a mental form of psycho innuendo, a type of interpretation of one's desires, including some acts of sexual needs." Egon said as a thought occurred through his head after reading Maria's documented analysis. "Um, tell me Miss Hecate, have you recently engaged in a relationship over the past month or so?"

"What does _that_ got to do with my dream?" Maria asked, feeling insulted at first.

"It's just a simple question Miss Hecate; have you or haven't you been seeing someone lately?"

"… Oh (sigh) Well, not since I've broken up with Eric a few years ago; but he did try to persuade me into going out with him again, but I've kept rejecting him God knows how many times already. Then I think after his visit, Dr. Stantz and I had a little discussion of our own for awhile about our own individual interests in true love."

"Mm, That could be one of the main reasons you had this dream last night; it seems your conversations with Ray, combined with your ex-boyfriend's return and reading The Divine Comedy filled your mind with unusual thoughts and other vivid visualizations that caused you to produce graphic images of your nightmare."

"Well, I guess that's a pretty good way to describe it; but are you sure that's what happened?"

"Not according to these readings here; I'd usually never doubt my calculations."

"Oh yeah, heh, silly me."

Then Egon finishes with a positive tone in his voice. "Don't worry Maria, it's absolutely nothing to worry about; this simple analogy is just part of the human mind, nothing to be concerned over."

"I guess so." Maria replied, despite she still felt that the nightmare she faced would somehow come back to haunt her once again. "Thank you Egon, I think I'm starting to feel a little better about this."

"However, if it's not too much to ask, I'll need to take a look at your brain for further studies."

"How? With an MRI?"

"… Probably."

That afternoon, Maria was back home for awhile so she could rest up at the moment before she would begin her shift at _Ray's Occult Books_ as she called her boss that morning to tell him she wasn't feeling too good, but could probably make it to the store at a later time. Ray agrees to Maria's conditional reasons and that was when she visited Egon for a quick checkup of her own and to make sure she wasn't entirely sick in the mind altogether. Even after her visit with Egon, Maria somehow still felt that the nightmare will never be able to leave her, and that it may come back sooner than expected; but she didn't want to risk the thought of it and so decides to take a quick nap back in her apartment.

It wasn't but a couple hours or so after Maria had finally settled down to sleep for awhile, a knock on the door was heard loudly across the other side of the apartment where Maria was sleeping on the sofa at the moment; she gets up from the furniture to see who it was, and as she looks through the peephole of the entrance, she notices two women standing and knocking in front of the door; one appeared with dark copper/brown hair, gold colored eyes, ruby red lipstick, and was dressed in a casual short skirt sundress. The other woman had raven black hair, dark sapphire eyes, her lipstick was colored a natural peach to brighten her pale skin tone, and was dressed in a simple shirt and skirt wear. The expressions each of the women showed were gleeful and excited looks, as though they were told of something of great importance.

As Maria recognized who the women were, she smirked with a slightly motivated expression as she opens the door to let them inside. The two ladies began to excitedly cheer and scream at the top of their voices as they start to crowd around Maria, who instantly felt uncomfortable over this unexpected surprise. She then hears the girls cry out random words, sounding as though they were acknowledging her of an unknown accomplishment.

"Oh my gosh; I never thought this day would come!" The copper haired woman said.

"Congratulations Maria, you've really hit the jackpot this time!" The raven haired woman remarks as well.

"So how did he do it; we're dying to know!"

"- Wait, why aren't you wearing it?"

Maria felt so confused over this whole commotion as she couldn't keep up at first to what the women were talking about. "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute; Annabel, Lenore slow down, what're you girls talking about? I should be wearing what now?"

The copper haired woman, named Annabel Lee Rodchester, spoke once more in confusion as she felt perhaps Maria didn't know of the news yet. "… Wait… you mean he hasn't told you yet?"

"Who told me what?" Maria asked with deep confusion.

The raven haired woman, named Lenore Karloff, felt confused as well, and then realized what she and Annabel had done. "Ooh… I don't think she knows yet."

"(Sigh) What're you two _talking_ about?" Maria asked with a now developing look of annoyance on her face. "_Who_ told you about me wearing _what_?!"

A long pause emerged for a long while, until Annabel started to speak with a nervous tone in her voice. "Uh… I-It's not really put _that_ way Maria; you see… um… well, we thought that you were um, finally… eh… Well, we didn't want to say anything at first, but um… this afternoon we were going to come by here and ask if you'd like to have lunch with us, but then uh… there was this _particular_ guy we sort of bumped into and um… h-he told us that you and _this_ same man we bumped into were getting… eh…"

"(Grumble) Oh for the love of -" Lenore finishes with an agitated voice. "We thought you and Eric are finally _engaged_!"

"What?! And you actually _believed_ him?!" Maria screamed with an angry look.

Both Annabel and Lenore stood still in dead silence for a very long moment, realizing that Maria had been deceived once again by her ex-boyfriend; never before had they seen their friend this enraged since they remembered the last time Maria was "engaged" behind her back. Then Annabel and Lenore each shook their heads in a positive manner, silently replying yes to Maria's angering question.

"(Grunt) Just - _Fine_, fine, fine;" Maria growled until she finally calms down to set things straight. "(sigh) okay, from the **_beginning_**, what _exactly_ has Eric told you _this time_?"

Lenore was the first to explain with a lump in her throat. "Well, as Annabel said, we were on our way here to ask you to join us for lunch today, until we bumped into Eric for the first time, as we haven't seen him in a long while; he specifically told us that you and him were finally back together, after that hoagie fiasco in North Harlem, and we even thought that you've actually had the nerve to give him another chance, and that's where this whole _engagement_ thing started."

Annabel took over the explanation next. "He did started to ramble on over how you can't live without him and that you were _dying_ to come back into his arms after he told us of his _supposed_ claim the two of you started dating again. Eric said that he and you have been dating for the past couple months until he finally asked your hand in marriage just this morning."

"Wait, as in _this_ this morning?" Maria asked as she stopped the conversation at the moment. "(Sigh) I was just down at the university this morning, visiting Dr. Spengler. Oh I should've known Eric had come too far this time; he hasn't been this desperate over me since the time we were up to Niagara during our third date."

"He does seem to like rushing things." Lenore replied.

Annabel remarked as well. "Not to mention the fact that he would give up everything to spend the rest of his life with you. Of course (giggle) I'll admit he _is_ kinda romantic in a way."

A long pause emerged once more after Annabel's own opinion of Eric's devotion of his own love. Maria just stared at Annabel with a disturbed look on her face.

"Eh… Hehe… I mean his romantic ways, not Eric, himself." Annabel spoke with a quiet tone in her voice.

Then after another long moment of silence, Maria asked once more. "(Sigh) okay, back to the wedding proposal thing, did Eric say anything else to you before you started congratulating me on my once again _'bogus engagement'_? (Grunt) It's my poor grandmother's funeral all over again (may she rest in peace)"

Lenore explained once more. "No, I don't think so; he was feeling so contented to tell us his 'proposal' to you."

"Maybe he's actually planning to propose to you sometime anyway;" Annabel said. "Not sure when, but he is pretty anxious to make the perfect timing."

Momentarily, Maria's telephone starts ringing from the den area of her apartment. Then with a deep feeling of who it might be calling, Maria walks into the den and picks up the receiver as she answers with a large sigh in her voice as she greets the caller.

"Hello? Who may I say is calling? (As if I didn't already _know_)"

Then a familiar male voice answered on the other end. _"Hey there beautiful; how's my favorite attractive lady today?"_

"Ugh… What do you want Eric?"

The caller, Eric, explained with an erotic voice. _"Well, I thought maybe we'd get together sometime and have dinner? I've got a special surprise for you, my Pretty Woman."_

Maria replies with a sarcastic tone. "… Gee, that sounds _swell_. Oh, I just remembered though, I actually have to **_WORK_** tonight! (Grunt) For God's sake Eric, let it go; I'm **_never_** coming back to you **_EVER_**! Stop trying to impress me with flowers, expensive gifts, or even an _engagement_ ring! That's right, you heard me, STOP TELLING EVERYONE WE'RE GETTING MARRIED; I just got the word from my friends here and they told me of how you explained how we're _'back together'_, and how you supposedly proposed to me _this morning_ when I wasn't anywhere _near_ you!"

There was deep silence going on at the other end of the receiver as Maria tries to take control of her temper and waited patiently for a response. Then, Maria hears a faint sound of a toilet being flushed on the telephone, and then afterwards hears Eric's voice once more.

_"Ah, that's better, sorry about that. Now, what was that you were saying my little honey-bunny?"_

"GAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!" Maria screamed at the top of her voice at the phone receiver, shaking it and choking it as if she were actually strangling Eric himself, and furiously slams it back onto the mechanism as she catches her breath from her anger.

Lenore and Annabel both stared at Maria with shocked expressions, never seeing their friend this angry before, and at the same time, they felt guilty over this awkward moment. Then Maria finally calms down from the phone call and mumbles to herself without Annabel or Lenore hearing her.

"(Grumble) I _knew_ I should've asked the superintendent to change this phone number."

After a moment, Lenore steps up to comfort Maria. "Oh Maria, I'm really sorry about today; I mean, after everything Eric told us, we just got ourselves lost into the very thought of you getting married."

Then Annabel got into the conversation. "I mean, despite Eric is sort of hot, but… remember all those times you told us how you want to meet someone different than you, and that you'd like to spend the rest of your life with him?"

"Well, that is true, but Eric's just - … not the type I want." Maria replied with a slightly aggravated and yet a combined look of distress on her face. "It just didn't really _sparked_ between us, we had _nothing_ in common, and worst of all, I can't believe I actually stood up for him against those three drunk bitches when we first met at the nightclub at Broadway. (Sigh) Boy, was I stupid that time."

Lenore spoke with a comforting tone. "Oh Maria, it wasn't your fault; we were pretty young at the time, and it was just one of those moments in life when we make mistakes."

"I do remember that night when we first met Eric," Annabel replied. "I think I had like four daiquiris and a little bit of **_Jack Daniels'_**."

"Still…" Maria continued. "I really don't mind settling down someday, but I'm so busy recently I just don't have some of the time anymore."

There was a quick silence in the apartment for awhile, until Lenore spoke once more.

"Here's a random thought; what about that boss of yours?"

"Dr. Stantz?" Maria asked with a surprised look. "I-I've only been working at his bookshop for some time now, I can't really form that kind of relationship with him anyway."

"Who said anything about forming an employee/boss relationship? Think about it this way Maria, not only do you see him everyday, aside from the fact he is your employer, but he's tall, he's very intelligent…"

"Not to mention _adorably __**cute**_!" Annabel replies as she remembers Ray Stantz. "Though Dr. Egon Spengler's my personal favorite of the whole team, I love a guy with big brains anyway."

Maria finishes with a similar remark she had told her employer once before. "Well, I do _like_ him; he's so sweet and compassionate, so handsome and considerate, and even the most amazing man I've ever known; I mean, he's everything a girl wants, and any woman would be lucky to have him, but… for some messed up reason… Ray doesn't really make my sparks fly either."

"WHAT?!" Annabel screamed over Maria's explanation.

"You can't be _serious_!" Lenore said.

"I don't know what it is I want in someone either," Maria finished. "All I know is, he's out there somewhere, whoever he is, and I just know that in the future he'll make me so happy." Then Maria notices a nearby wall clock hanging above the sofa, indicating the current time. "Oh. Speaking of which, I'd better get down to the bookshop right now; I told Ray that I'd clock in at a later shift."

Then with the entire conversation at its final closure, Maria quickly grabs her purse, escorts her friends out of the apartment and locks up as she leaves her apartment building for the remainder of the day.

The next day, while watching the weather channel, Maria was preparing herself to go out and run some personal errands for awhile; she listens to the meteorologist predict a new form of thunderstorms that had been merging on and off for quite some time.

_"… With more possible chances of thunderstorms heading into the East Coast for the remainder of the week, this one seems to be a little strange somehow, as dark clouds merge in and out of the Manhattan area with occasional raindrops that appear to be something _**glowing**_ and once in a while __**green**__, all coming down in one spot of the Central Park area. Brick Tamland has this story…" _

However, Maria didn't really paid much attention to the television since she thought weathermen are all just pretty faces on the screen, until she hears a knock on the door momentarily after she had gotten herself ready to go out. Once she opens the door, she finds none other than Eric Wadestone himself, once again.

"Oh for Christ's sake!" Maria cried in anger. "Do I have to call the cops on you from now on?!"

Eric then starts to explain as he tries to prevent Maria from slamming the door on him. "N-Now wait a minute, wait a minute Maria, please, let me explain;"

"(Grunt) Fine; you've got _five_ minutes!"

"Okay, listen, about yesterday… (gulp) well, yeah I did kinda bumped into _Lenny_ and _Anna_ after I did a little personal shopping for awhile… and I did sort of… eh… hehe… maybe told them a little…"

"Believe me, I already _know_ about that."

"Oh. Heh… T-They told you, didn't they?"

"Enough to make me kick your ass out of here before I finally call the cops!"

"Okay, okay, okay I know how you feel about what I did, seriously! That's why I came here; (sigh) I want to make this up to you, I'm sorry about everything I did to you, and to have eh… embarrassed you a little over the years. So, I was wondering if… you're not doing anything tonight… maybe, we could have dinner together?"

Maria stood in the middle of the doorway and stared at Eric in silence. At that moment, she readies herself to slam the apartment door as she spoke once more.

"Sorry, your five minutes is up!"

Quickly, Eric stops Maria from slamming the door as he tries to persuade Maria once more. "Nononono, wait a minute, I wasn't finished; I mean to just go out and just… you know, _have dinner_. Nothing romantic, nothing to make you feel a little eh discriminating, or anything else that's related to our last relationship, love affairs, or anything sexual. Just you and me, together at a restaurant, and just be ourselves."

Another moment of silence passed as Maria stood there in deep thought, thinking over Eric's offering and how he mentioned it won't be a romantic dinner this time. She thought it over and over and over, until she gives a large sigh and looked at Eric once more with a slightly disturbed expression on her face.

She asked with a steady but doubtful tone. "Nothing romantic?"

"Nothing romantic in any way you can think of." Eric replied with a solemn smirk.

"- No Mariachi Band and a bottle of Tequila, remember _that_?"

"Not even a pretty red rose with a ring tied around it; I **_promise_**."

Once more, the hallway fell into silence after Eric said he promised not to make up another schematic dinner proposal between him and Maria.

Maria took another moment to think this over again, and finally replies with a distressed voice. "(Sigh) I'll probably regret this but… If I do this, will you please _leave me __**alone**_, and **_never_** try to convince me to come back to you **_ever again_**?!"

"I swear on my mother's grave."

Then Maria spoke once more with a quiet tone and her teeth grinding at the same time. "(Sigh) Alright, I'll go to dinner with you."

"Great! So, I'll pick you up at eight o'clock?"

"… Sure… why not."

With a very gleeful smile on his face, Eric finally leaves the apartment building, happy to see Maria finally agreeing to go out on a simple dinner date with him.

Afterwards, Maria shuts her apartment door after agreeing to have dinner with Eric, but developed a bad feeling tonight will not go at all planned, but hopefully after tonight Eric will never see her again. Then Maria grabs the remote control of the television set as she prepares to shut it off, and sees the weatherman on the screen, looking over at Central Park as it was raining and thundering hard, looking as though it were an actual tornado going on in the general area.

_"… As you can see behind me once again,"_ The meteorologist explained. _"This rainstorm has just come back to this section of Central Park; it's been going on like this for the past few hours today, as the raindrops look like something you see at a toxic waste dump factory. The wind conditions are at a high level threat, temperatures around this spot had dropped drastically every few minutes, and there's even some hints of actual low moaning and screaming sounds being heard while the high winds continue to form. Sources say that this could become one of the biggest tornadoes in the state. Back to you Ron." _

Soon after the meteorologist explained the current weather predictions, Maria finally turns off the television and grabs her purse so she could start her day.

"These weather forecasts get weirder and weirder every day." She said.

At the **_Tavern on the Green_** restaurant that night, Eric and Maria sat and talked throughout the whole time, eating their dinner and discuss of the separate events about each other after their breakup a long time ago. Truly, it was just an ordinary get together, and as promised, there was absolutely nothing in relation to romance or even a single commitment question was asked.

"Well, I must admit you actually did something _right_ this time." Maria said in a complimenting manner.

Eric replied as well, despite he still kept his wandering eyes on Maria herself in admiration. "Well you know, after everything I put you thorough, I just felt this will help to ease and forget all about the troubles I did."

"I must say though, the wine did hit the spot; and that Dolphin, wow; who knew there was a type that has a high blunt forehead and a green, blue, and yellow colored body that could be so edible."

Silence broke out for a long moment after Maria and Eric giggled and chuckled while they continued their conversation.

"You know Eric, I don't know how I can thank you for this," Maria spoke. "I mean, this dinner was just what I needed to get my mind cleared off after everything that's happened this week. You really are a good man."

"Hey, anything for a se - I mean, fr-fri-_friend_." Eric hesitated, trying as though he were about to blow his cover.

"What was that? Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, yeah I'm fine. A little chilly in here, isn't it?"

"Sort of, I guess? It's not bothering me any."

Then as Eric and Maria continued to talk, a group of violinists started to play a beautiful piece of music, **_Canon in D Major_** by _Johann Pachelbel_, in order to lighten and romanticize the mood for the restaurant patrons; the waiter walks up to mostly the table where Eric and Maria sat brings in a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice and sets it to the side. He lays out two flute glasses and then pops open the liquor bottle to pour.

The waiter spoke after pouring the champagne with a slightly fake French accent. "This is complimentary to the house. We hope your evening is going well as planned, no? (giggle)"

Maria studies the unusual giddy expression the waiter had, looking as though he seems to know something was going to happen later on. _What's he so happy about?_ She wondered with a confused expression.

"Will se Madame or Messieur be having anything else before I bring in se dessert?" The waiter asked once more while going a little overboard with the accent.

"No, we're fine." Eric said with a large smile as he looks over enchantingly at Maria. "I think I'm good with what I got now."

Maria asked though with her expression continuing to form a more puzzling mood. "Wait a minute, I-I didn't order any dessert."

"It is complimentary as well Mademoiselle, I'm sure your boyfriend here will explain."

"But he's not my…"

The waiter leaves to return to the kitchen, without explaining why the champagne and dessert were complimentary. Maria stares at Eric with a now concerned and tense look on her face after the waiter mentioned Eric was her _boyfriend_. Then Maria felt in her soul that something was indeed going to happen in a matter of time.

"There's something fishy going on here." Maria said with a disgruntled voice. "What are you up to _again_ Eric?"

"Heh… Maybe the fish you ate is starting to act up." Eric said, trying to make a joke.

Maria stared at Eric with her eyes squinting in a discontented state as she is somehow starting to feel that tonight was not going to end well.

Soon the violinists played the Pachelbel music piece a little louder, some of the restaurant staff started to gather around one side of the building, some rose petals were somehow laid around the area in which Eric and Maria sat during most of the time, the same French accented waiter returned with the dessert cart in which he strangely parks beside the kitchen entrance, and even some of the restaurant patrons were noticing the goings on around the building. Even Maria had noticed some of the unexpected changes in which had just immediately gone on at the moment, and begins to feel a little nervous but at the same time agitated.

"Eric… _what_ is going on he - (Gasp)?" Maria asked with her teeth grinding.

After noticing the unusual changes around the restaurant, Maria turns her head back around and sees Eric already kneeling down on one knee and held up Maria's hands in an admiring state. Maria's eyes widened with surprise but is slowly making their way into a fiery rage just as Eric begins to explain with a soft voice.

After noticing the unusual changes around the restaurant, Maria turns her head back around and sees Eric already kneeling down on one knee and held up Maria's hands in an admiring state. Maria's eyes widened with surprise but is slowly making their way into a fiery rage just as Eric begins to explain with a soft voice.

"Maria, my _love_, you are the _only_ girl I ever wanted in my life, you're the only one who's always been there for me, have made me the most happiest man on Earth each and every day, and there's absolutely no one else I'd rather spend the rest of my life than the most beautiful girl of my dreams."

Then Eric reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a small black velvet case and opens it to reveal a stunningly gorgeous 24k crystal diamond ring shining brighter than the very lights of the whole restaurant. Maria stared at the ring for a solid couple minutes, at first admiring the beautiful jewelry, and then she finally hears Eric ask the one question she didn't want to hear altogether.

"Maria Hecate… will you _marry_ me?"

Everyone in the restaurant all gasped in shock to see Eric propose to Maria, with some of them feeling overwhelmed over this wonderful occasion, and most of them clapped softly as they await to hear Maria's reply, of course in their minds thought that it was going to be a definite yes.

Maria looked deep into Eric's eyes and saw the betrayal he held, and with her own expression turning into a furious rage, she finally bursts out one bold answer from the top of her voice.

**_"NO!"_**

The entire restaurant all gawked in fear as they heard Maria give a negative reply.

Eric at first, stared blankly at Maria, but held up the engagement ring with a noble determination. "Heh. Oh come on Maria, you do mean yes, right?"

Maria finally took her glass of champagne and threw the liquid right at Eric's face. The liquor slightly burned Eric for a moment, but he slowly begins to see the reality of Maria's frustration as she spoke.

"I should've known it would come to this, you lying piece of dirt! You _promised_ you would never do this again, you swore on your mother's grave!"

"Actually, my mother's in Honolulu with her boyfriend."

Suddenly, after hearing how Eric's mother is not really dead, Maria viciously slaps Eric's face, knocking him down slightly.

"I haven't been this embarrassed since the last time you tried to propose;" Maria continued. "When are you going to get it through your thick head Eric, I am _**never**_ going to marry you! I never should've stood up to you at that nightclub a long time ago; you had never been the type of man I want, and I never cared for anything you try to do for me. It's over Eric, in fact it's been over for _years_, I will never ever, ever, ever, _**EVER**_ be yours!"

"So… is that a _maybe_, then?" Eric asked.

Maria growled at Eric as she forcibly picked him up by the collar of his shirt. "Stop _pretending_ that you don't know what I'm talking about, stop embarrassing me with these stupid proposals, stop embarrassing _yourself_ in asking my hand, and stop trying to convince everyone in the whole city that we're meant to be together! We've been broken up for several _years_ now, and there's no way in Heaven, Hell, Earth, or even any dimensional worlds that you and I are ever going to be together; I can't take this anymore!"

Maria then pushes Eric down, grabs her purse, and finally stomps out of the restaurant. Eric tries to stop her as he spoke to convince her otherwise. "But Maria, I… I love you -"

"NOT EVEN IF YOU'RE SUCKED INTO A WHIRLING VORTEX OF DOOM!" Maria screamed once more. "If you did, I hope you'll end up somewhere horrible so you'd never come back! Just leave me _alone_ Eric, I will NEVER BE. YOUR. WIFE! _**EVER**_!"

Then Maria leaves the restaurant, leaving Eric alone and embarrassed once again, despite it was his own doing that got himself into this mess to begin with.

Later that evening, Eric was walking alone through the public park, feeling heartbroken after Maria's denial; he still kept hold onto the engagement ring, still feeling that Maria will one day change her mind and crawl back to him so that they can finally be together at long last. The park itself seemed to be very quiet at this time of night, but it would soon change once Eric arrived upon the central cornerstone of the area. A large gust of wind blew by, feeling the heavy breeze whiz through his body like it were trying to pick him up off the ground; then some trembling roars of thunder were heard around the vicinity, some rain drizzled down from the sky, and oddly enough, some dark but shadowy clouds loomed right over Eric's head as it formed into one large mist as it begins to twirl slowly around.

"Whoa. The weatherman didn't say anything about a storm tonight." Eric said as he looks up at the storm formation.

Not long after the dark clouds merged into place, the entire storm itself started to form a more ghastly squall; the winds began to feel stronger and blew more heavily than the first time with slight sounds of eerie screams and moaning being strangely heard at the same time, the rain started to feel more gooey and slimy like unusual glops of a ghost-like substance, and then even the thunders and lightning of this unpredicted storm grew louder and rumbled more intensely than before. Eric decided at that moment to leave the area immediately before the storm would worsen, but as he rushes out of the general area, he notices that the rest of the city is not occupied with the weather; in fact, this one particular thunderstorm had only been located in this one specific spot somehow, not as to even naturally move on in the sky.

Then as the storm grew fiercer, Eric suddenly feels his body slowly being pulled away, as though someone or something was actually taking him. He looks over and sees the rainstorm grow stronger, but notices a strange opening deep beneath clouds, looking like it were some kind of… _vortex_. He then hears the strange moaning and screaming sounds coming from inside the clouds itself, sounding louder and more eerily than before.

The winds grew stronger still as it suddenly starts to suck Eric right into the tornado itself, making him drop his engagement ring onto the earthy ground! The massive thunderstorm roughly grabs Eric into its very eye and suddenly, as if by transportation, takes him swirling all around the clouds for a good solid thirty minutes, until he is ended up back onto the earthly terrain, safe and sound, as if time itself had just drastically passed by in the blink of an eye.

The unusual thunderstorm dies down at the moment, dissipating into thin air, and Eric was in a state of unconsciousness for a long while, until he finally awakens to find himself back in Central Park. Oddly enough, the sky looked to be darker than ever before, the air was dense and cold, and an unusual smell of rotting flesh filled the atmosphere. Eric felt so confused at first, wondering if he was even in New York anymore, and so he starts to walk around to see if anyone was present; sure enough he sees an old bum sitting on the sidewalk, alone, and he walks up behind him to grab his attention.

"Excuse me, sir?" Eric asked. "Hey, did you just see what happened back there?"

Once Eric grabbed the bum's attention, the hobo himself turns to see Eric with his own eyes, but his face appeared even worse than what street dwellers usually look like, as he was nothing but a _skeletal corpse_!

Both Eric and the bum screamed in horror, but the hobo looked to be even more scared as he cried out.

"A HUMAN!"

Momentarily, another citizen notices Eric's presence as well; this one was a woman, a walking_ dead __**zombie**_, who suddenly shrieks in fear and cried out a similar notification in which the bum yelled earlier.

"Gah! A human being! Help!"

Confused, Eric starts to run away down the streets of what looks to be 17th Parkway; then he comes across a group of little wolf-like creatures that appeared to have the characteristics of a human, but were more like **_werewolves_** instead, with each of them looking to wear girl scout uniforms as though they were an actual Brownie Troop team. Each of them howled in fright to see Eric in all his presence.

"It's a human!"

"Run!"

"Somebody do something (howl)!"

The troop leader, another werewolf, meanwhile tries to calm the little pups down as she tries to keep them away from Eric. "Calm down girls; get behind me and try not to panic!"

Then Eric runs away again, momentarily to find himself caught inside a nightclub full of zombies, ghosts, mutated creatures, incubi and succubae, and all other types of monsters. At first, Eric didn't notice the supernatural presence until he turns after shutting the door tight and stares blankly at the undead.

No one in the entire club said a single word once Eric ran inside; a long silence held on for quite a long while… until a bar patron, a zombie who had been quivering in fear at the moment, finally screams with a high pitched voice and raises a cold finger up, pointing at Eric over his presence.

Immediately, all of the bar patrons scattered and screamed in fear over the fact that a human, Eric, was "invading" the undead territory. Then, Eric rushes out of the nightclub before things would get worse and stumbles into the middle of the streets, seeing more of the ghoulish pedestrians scream and scatter away in fear of seeing a human present. Momentarily afterwards, Eric sees four large shadows looming right over him; he felt too scared to even turn around to see who or what was behind him, until he hears an unusual power-up sound, like someone was charging up a _weapon_.

**_KA-SKREEEEEEEE!_**

Slowly, Eric turns his head to see what was behind, and what he saw next felt like his own soul was already being torn away as soon as he screamed for his life.

"GGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH… !"

All at the same time, Eric felt darkness immediately clouding over him, feeling like multiple paintballs simultaneously hitting him into unconsciousness.


	5. Chapter 4: The City that Never Dies

**_Chapter Four: The City that Never Dies_**

It was Maria's day off at the time; she was just staying at her apartment, reading more of Dante Alighieri's poem, observing the other half of the second edition **_Paradisio_**. Then, just as she was getting into more of the prose, she heard the apartment door knock, and so Maria walks up to the door and peeks through the centerpiece of the entrance, looking through the mirrored peephole to see two young women standing in front of the apartment, somehow eager to see Maria herself.

Maria smirks as she recognizes the women, who in fact were her two best friends, Annabel Rodchester and Lenore Karloff; she then opens the apartment door, welcoming the girls inside as they squealed with joy to see Maria present.

"Ooh, how've you been Maria?" Annabel greeted with a happy tone.

"Y-You're still not upset over what happened awhile back, are you?" Lenore asked with a slightly worried look on her face.

"I am, but not at you two;" Maria replied with a concerned look. "I'm just glad it's finally over after what he tried to pull last night."

"Oh so he did try to propose to you again, didn't he?"

"Unfortunately."

"Still, how did it go this time?" Annabel asked with a giddy voice.

"Well, I don't want to say," Maria explained. "But I think this time he's finally embarrassed himself as well as I finally came to his senses and just walked away from there. I just _hope_ that this time he's finally left me alone."

"Well did he?" Lenore asked.

"I haven't heard my phone ring all morning, so _that's_ good, and I haven't even received any expensive gifts from him either, and that's also good. I guess he's _finally_ decided to leave me alone for once; hell, maybe from now on I'll _never_ see him again."

Lenore and Annabel smirked to see their friend in a cheerful mood today.

"Well then, I guess this is where we come in," Annabel said.

"What're you talking about?" Maria asked.

Lenore spoke with a casually blissful expression. "Oh. Well, we were just wondering if now that you're in a good mood today, how about we go out to lunch, just the three of us?"

Maria giggled by Lenore's request and replies with a smile. "For once, I would love to; since now that I'm finally rid of that Eric dork for good."

So Maria grabs her purse and followed her friends out of the apartment door, locking it afterwards, and then she, Annabel, and Lenore each left the building and took a taxi for a quick ride across the city to go out for lunch.

Inside a small café in Midtown, it was a quiet and simple luncheon as Annabel, Lenore, and Maria spent the afternoon together without ever having to worry about anything in relation to the events that have happened during the week. The three women sat and talked, catching up on their individual lives and ate their lunch orders and a little afterwards had some coffee. In between the conversations however, Maria would be seen with gloomy expressions and a dull gaze in her eyes; this worried Annabel and Lenore at the moment as they try to speak to her in order to keep her out of her unusually low-spirited side.

"Maria, is everything alright?" Lenore asked. "You hardly even touched your food."

"You're not still worried about Eric, are you?" Annabel asked as well.

Maria tries to snap herself out of the grim mood and explains. "Hm? Oh no, no I'm not worried about Eric at all, seriously. No, it's actually something else that's been bothering me more recently."

"Like what?"

"Well… Did either of you ever had a dream, a particular dream, about what's going to happen to you in the future?"

Both Annabel and Lenore stared at each other in confusion, not understanding what Maria was talking about at first.

"I mean, what I'm trying to ask," Maria continued. "Is have you ever dreamt of an event that might be a prediction of some sort that's going to happen to you sooner or later?"

"Well, tell us about it." Lenore asked.

"Yeah, what's been bothering you Hon?" Annabel asked as well, eager to hear Maria's dream.

Maria clears her throat for a moment and finally explains her dream. "Well, it's a little disturbing, but (sigh) here it goes: For a long while now I've been dreaming about some… _creature_… with the only description I can remember from him are his deformed eyes; he claims that he's a part of _my_ future, that he's my true soul mate. Every time I close my eyes, I would often find myself atop some kind of ritual platform and he's right there beside me, sometimes flirting with me, torturing me, or he would even actually (ahem) **_arouse_** me! I'd try to fight it off but for some messed up reason I just… _give in_ to this… **_monster_**. I don't know _who_ this guy's supposed to be, I don't know why I'd see him as though he's actually part of the **_dead_**, I-I just… **_don't know_**.

"(Sigh) I know this sounds extremely crazy to you, but I can't seem to help it, these nightmares just wouldn't go away no matter what I try to do; Dr. Spengler says that it was probably caused by reading too much of _The Divine Comedy_ I've been catching up on lately."

"Or that maybe it's because you've been working at that bookshop for too long Maria." Lenore suggested as she stopped Maria for a moment. "You did spent a whole lot of time there since it first opened; and reading that (ugh) weird book probably made it worse. You were only working too hard, and everything that's been going on this week's made you even more nervous than a shaky schoolboy at prom."

"This felt so real though," Maria continued. "Like he was _really_ there; every night I've been trying to get a decent sleep but when I do at least for a moment, it's like he's right there, watching me, waiting for me, and who knows if he'll be there tonight when I go to bed."

Annabel spoke as she thought over Maria's dream. "You know this reminds me of the time I dreamt of a scary monster trying to take over my life."

"You did?!" Both Lenore and Maria cried.

"Oh wait - that was actually a Halloween party I went to with my boyfriend Vincent, a couple years ago. (Giggle) I remember now, it was a costume party; we were doing that old romance tale theme, _Beauty & the Beast_, remember that? Course, some other couple that was dressed like _The Munsters_ won first prize that night."

Lenore ignored her friend as she goes back in trying to cheer Maria up. "Listen Maria, whatever that monster is that's been bugging you in your dreams, just remember that that's all it is, _nothing_ but a **_dream_**."

"(Sigh) I guess you're right," Maria replied.

After their luncheon, Annabel, Lenore, and Maria all took a little stroll in Midtown as they decided to go do some shopping for awhile; however, something else had caught Maria's attention, as though an unexplained force suddenly stopped her in the middle of the street.

"Ooh. That's strange; something doesn't _feel_ right." Maria said.

"What's the matter?" Annabel asked.

"I don't know; um, did I tell you how Eric hasn't been bothering me since last night?"

"Come to think of it, yes you did." Lenore replied. "He hasn't called you or anything, and that's good, right?"

"That's just it, it is a _good_ thing he hasn't been bothering me, but… I don't think it is. I mean, sure I want him off my back, but somehow… well, _something_ doesn't **_feel right_**."

"It's probably the weather;" Annabel replied. "You know, like that weird freak storm that's been going on recently. You know, ever since that Central Park incident awhile back, things have been getting a little more _weirder_ by the minute."

"Just because those exterminators saved everyone that time, doesn't mean the city had to shut them down immediately afterwards." Lenore replied.

Ignoring her friends for a moment, Maria took a thought for herself and became a little worried; if Eric hasn't been calling her for a while now, maybe something's happened to him instead. And since Maria's final breakup, and after what she had said to him, a strange feeling of guilt slowly begins to crawl through her, and a strange voice inside her mind was unusually telling her to _go home_ right now.

"Uh, girls, listen, I-I'm afraid I won't be hanging out with you after all." She said.

"Aw, what's wrong now?" Annabel asked with a worried tone.

"I-I just need to go home right now; I suddenly… don't… really feel too good at this moment."

"Oh. Well, okay." Lenore replied. "Perhaps a trip to the spa will clear your mind, then?"

"Thanks Lenore, but maybe tomorrow or something, I just need to get home for awhile, you know to rest up and everything."

Then Maria called up the nearest taxi cab, and leaves her friends as she talked to the driver to take her back to Central Park West immediately.

On her way home, Maria was enjoying the quiet cab ride to herself, clearing her mind a little from her recent discussions of her terrible dreams and how Eric hasn't been bothering her recently; until after the driver turns through the next street, Maria notices a few police cars, a couple fire trucks, some ambulances, and tons of media news teams gather around what appears to be the remains of the massive thunderstorm that was still merging on and off in the Central Park. All of the emergency vehicles caused a slight backup of regular car traffic, but Maria at first ignored the goings on and just laid herself back against the taxi cab seat, nearly drifting herself off to sleep at that moment.

In the darkness, Maria hears a large crowd of people surrounding her, somehow in either pain or misery, sounding like they were the walking dead, itself; she looks around and hears nothing but voices of the damned echoing all around, until she begins to see an image of Eric, somehow trapped inside a cage, and even looked to be calling for help. Then, Eric's presence disappears, slowly transforming into Maria's most haunted and disfigured nightmare; the very grotesque eyes of the monster from her dreams appeared before her, looking straight on at her, and looked like they _know_ exactly of Maria's fate to come.

Suddenly, Maria hears the eyes speak for the first time. "… _Come to __**me**_… !"

Maria suddenly wakes up from her nap, but finds herself still inside the taxi, still caught in the middle of traffic with the emergency vehicles and the news media still at Central Park. Then, curiosity struck Maria as the voice from before came back to her, telling her _go investigate_ this time.

"Driver, you can just drop me off here; my home's not that far off anyway." Maria said.

"If you say so lady," The driver replies. "That'll be $19.84."

Maria pays the taxi driver and finally got out of the vehicle; she walks up to the park and just stroll around at the moment, looking up at the unusual thunderstorm clouds that kept hovering over the same spot for the past several days now.

Maria walks up to one of the police officers and asked what the problem was. "Excuse me, officer? W-What's going on here?"

The policeman replies, explaining what he knows of. "A couple of bums witnessed this storm that was going on awhile back, saying that it sucked up some macho guy into the eye of it while walking around here."

Maria notices two street dwellers talking to a news reporter about an incident they witnessed one night. One was dressed in a dark mahogany trench coat with two different ragged shirts tied around his waist as belts, had a pair of fingerless gloves, wore a wool toque styled hat, and dark frayed pants and black boots. The other bum appeared to be wearing two different hats, a navy blue trench coat, a pair of pants with poorly sewn patches, fingerless gloves, and some thin garbage bags tied around his neck and shoulders like it were a cape. Both of these men were explaining to the reporter of what they saw during the terrible thunderstorm.

The first bum spoke with the left corner side of his lower lip sticking out as he talked with a slight lisp sounding accent. "… Whatever Bill and I saw last night, whoo, it blew me away; I mean, t-this storm was like something that a good karate guy would top a heavyweight boxer in a three match fight, you know? I mean, it turned into some kind of whirly tornado thing and started to suck everything dry."

The other bum took over the interview however, explaining his own speculation of what he saw as his voice sounded like a slight high pitched hoarse voice. "No, no, it didn't really suck anything dry, but it did suck up this one guy that was walking around the place and then it dropped this pretty looking ring that we found back there after the storm was over. Looks good as new, like it hasn't even been placed around a woman's finger yet."

Maria looked closely at what the second bum was holding up in his hands and saw that it was a crystal diamond ring; but as she examines closer, she felt that the little jewelry did looked slightly familiar, and then thought about the dinner date she had with Eric before she finally broke it off completely with him.

"An engagement ring?!" Maria cried as she soon realized what the ring in which the two bums found looked familiar. "But that was when… Eric! H-He couldn't have - I mean, through a storm like… _this one_? But how?! I mean, even though I had to do what's right to get him off my back, but… I-I didn't want him to get hurt!"

Despite the new thought that it was her own fault that supposedly caused Eric's disappearance, but Maria still kept to her words she spoke during last night's date, but at the same time she didn't want this new guilt to haunt her for the rest of her life. So at that moment, she decides to do a little investigation over the storm and find out who or what has really taken Eric into his current predicament.

Later that evening, Maria was trying to gather as much information as possible to see if she could maybe find a more logical explanation of Eric's disappearance. She mostly looked up references at the Public Library, finding some hints over tornadoes and strange weather occurrences. So far though, she hasn't really found any answers she was hoping for to see if the current weather is unlike any ordinary hurricane. Then she remembered hearing about the tornado raining some kind of green substance on and off, and how on occasion the winds are often described as actual people screaming.

"Weird; everybody's been saying that this storm's been one of the worst since that snowstorm in '78," Maria contemplated to herself. "But it doesn't look like any storm I've seen over the years; this one's totally _different_, those bums mentioned that it managed to suck up Eric. If that's the case, then… where could he have gone to?"

Then Maria thought of an impossible solution. "I've got to go back and check this thing out for myself!"

Maria returns to Central Park once more, finding the same storm cloud hovering over its exact manifestation spot as before, and with no one present at this time, it was finally Maria's chance to take a closer inspection of the storm for herself.

"Strange. It looks like a regular storm cloud, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere." Maria said to herself until another thought occurred to her. "I wonder… what if this thing is something **_more_**… that could possibly… be somewhat _supernatural_ maybe?"

Maria studies the storm cloud for a good long twenty minutes, seeing it still hovering in one spot, showing absolutely no signs of weakening.

Then, a small single droplet of rain fell from the cloud, appearing exactly to be glowing green, like a ghost-like residue. The entire storm itself started to form once again into a much more deadly windstorm as the winds blew heavily, slight sounds of eerie screams and moaning are strangely heard once again at the same time, the rain started to feel more like unusual glops of ectoplasm again, and then the thunders and lightning of this unpredicted storm again grew louder and rumbled more intensely than Eric's encounter. This time however, it was Maria's turn.

"Wha - W-What's going on?!" Maria panicked as she tries to distance herself away from the storm.

With this same cyclone returning to wreak its havoc among the public park, Maria begins to feel herself being slowly taken up into the storm, itself, but balances herself as best as possible to keep away from the rainstorm; beneath the very eye, a strange opening occurs, looking like it were some kind of _doorway_, the strange moaning and screaming sounds grew louder deep within the vortex and was sounding more eerie than before, and the lightning struck fiercely onto the earthly ground a few times, but somehow didn't leave any burn marks or other affects that could cause electrical damages.

As Maria continues to move away from the storm, she accidentally trips over a rock and falls to the ground; that is when she suddenly begins to feel herself scooped up into the strong winds, feeling that she was being _taken_ into the very storm itself!

"Aaah! Help! Somebody?! Get me down from here; help me!" Maria pleaded.

However, there was no one present to save Maria from the storm, and Maria was already too high up to be reached from human hands. Like Eric, the thunderstorm takes Maria swirling all around the clouds for a very long time, and during that time however, Maria begins to see her own life flash before her very eyes while being stuck into the whirlwind, feeling worried now that this is the true end of her. Finally, she ends up back onto the solid ground, safe and sound, and in a blink of an eye, it felt as though time itself had just whizzed by.

Once Maria had safely landed after the fierce tornado had taken her in, she looks up to find herself in a very grim and decaying matter. She sees the whole park in ruins; some of the trees held no leaves, slime and mold were scattered around most every acre, wild partially dead forest animals occupied some of the territory, flowers like wolfsbane was barely seen in the heavy mists that surround the park, there were unmarked tombstones that imitate as gardening décor, and the grass was all rotting brown and felt rough as one would walk through with bare feet. The only hint of beauty that was rarely seen around this park, were a few large bushes with dark navy leaves, sharp thorns that could even pierce the skin right through, and blood red and raven black roses each grew beneath these shrubs, all blooming in full blossom.

"W-Wha… What _is_ this place?!" Maria asked with a frightened tone.

Maria felt chills in the air, as the atmosphere in this new world was cold and damp, but ignores the drastic weather and heads out of the park as she comes across the open streets of what looked to be the remains of New York City; the buildings were being rotted away, street signs were written with very peculiar names like _West Dead Avenue_ and _42nd Reaper Street_, and even more of oozing slime and mold surrounded the place as if it were a natural, everyday part of life. No one was present at the moment, but Maria begins to press onward in order to find any sign of Eric and get him out of this realm.

Awhile after walking deeper into the city, Maria stumbles herself into an alley and starts to hear laughter and cheering coming from the next street just at the end of the narrow passage. She tiptoes closer toward the exit, careful not to be seen by anyone and then hid herself beneath the shadows to see what was all the commotion.

What Maria noticed at first, was that the streets were truly occupied with the _dead_, **_itself_**; there were ghosts, zombies, hobgoblins, ghouls, mutated monsters, humanoid sea creatures with some of them carrying around their own personal buckets of water for air, there were also some vampires, werewolves, patchwork creatures that were poorly sewn together with different body parts, living skeletons, and even some blob-like beasts were present as well. All of these - _citizens_ - frightened Maria as she looked closer into the streets, realizing at that moment the tornado that took her was actually an interdimensional portal gateway into this ghastly new world; and truly, it was like New York City, but here it was an exact opposite, _undead_, at least. And now, Maria was trapped.

"Oh my God!" Maria cried, careful not to yell louder to expose her presence. "W-Where am I?! W-W-What is this?! Why is everybody and everything so… (ugh) _**dead**_?!"

Maria studies the ghoulish goings on awhile longer, discovering next that a parade was in the process, with many half-finished or decaying floats that depicted multiple creatures in representations of how New York City holds their celebratory processions; but in this world, with everything in relation to Death and the Afterlife, this particular celebration looked like it was close to the Halloween holiday, itself.

Then, the first marching band of the parade, formed by a large group of vampires, began to play eerie music alongside the celebration, sounding very ghastly but as more of a cheerful and jaunty meaning, and some of the city patrons recognized some of the beat in which the instrumentalists played and just sang along, like it was their own alma mater.

_Boys and ghouls of every age,_

_Wouldn't you like to see something strange?_

_Come with us and you will see_

_This our town of Halloween._

Maria couldn't believe her own ears as she continues to hear this ghastly new song. She then sees a group of skeletal dancers next, surprisingly all in their perfect forms as they dance to the cheerful but grisly music.

_In this town, we call home, _

_Everyone hail to the pumpkin song_

_In this town, don't we love it now,_

_Everybody's waiting for the next surprise._

Several other float passed by in celebration to the upcoming holiday, but some of them looked like they were representing some group of beasts defeating… _humans_?! The sheer sight of these floats frightened Maria, but then thought of an opinion that the mobile platforms provide clues on the whereabouts of Eric, and _who_ maybe have captured him at the time. Another marching band approaches, as it was nearing the middle of the parade, and these were a group of zombified instrument players and they too played along with the song which still continued on as part of the festival.

_This is Halloween_

_Red 'n black, slimy green_

_Aren't you scared?_

_Well that's just fine!_

_Say it once, say it twice_

_Take a chance and roll the dice_

_Ride with the moon in the dead of night_

_Everybody scream_

_Everybody scream_

_In our town of Halloween._

Next up, there was another large float that was also partially finished but rather more decaying for that matter; this one had a sort of pageant related representation, with a group of six "princess" contestants and one "queen" finalist standing in the back of the float; the queen was a very monstrous form, looking like a bogeyman, with fingers like snakes and spiders crawling in her hair, while each one of the princess participants are large blobs, two faced patchworks, horrific conjoined twins, reptile-like monsters, disfigured corpses, and even a living brain creature was present atop the parade platform.

"(Gag) I don't even want to _know_ how they're judged." Maria gagged in disgust.

Behind the "beauty" pageant float, another marching band and dancers slowly came up as they played the same dreadful tune, this time it was a combined group of zombies, ghosts, and two-legged deformed sea creatures; all of them however, still kept to the beat of their music as they played on with their individual instruments and dance routines.

_Tender lumplings everywhere_

_Life's no fun without a good scare_

_That's our job, but we're not mean,_

_In our town of Halloween._

_In this town don't we love it now,_

_Everyone's waiting for the next surprise._

The parade was nearly coming to its closure, as they were all heading toward a large and decaying building in what looked to be the remains of Upper Manhattan, an undead version of City Hall was presently bleak and grim, with some of the councilmen standing at the side steps, watching the parade in motion. Maria, meanwhile, followed the procession down toward the building, not able to see anymore of the grotesque mobile platforms, and then once more to avoid being seen by the public hid herself beneath another small alley across from the tall building, while watching the patrons finish on with their ominous but merry song.

_In this town, we call home,_

_Everyone hail to the pumpkin song._

_La la la lalala la la lalala_

_la la lalala lalala…*_

While everyone of the citizens finishes the last verses of their haunting medley, Maria looked on toward the end of the parade line to see a long black car, looking like a 1959 Cadillac hearse. The very exterior looked to be in its total deterioration, with some of its paint chipping away, several dents were barely seen on the side, rust, mold and mildew looked like it had been forming over the years, and the hood of the vehicle was half torn, banged up, and rotted away. On the rooftop, there were two sets of purple lens light bars, one on the front and one behind the roof equipment; a couple of magenta colored deck lights, and a Unity spot light model located on the front driver's side with a side view mirror on the back. Strange gizmos were built onto the car as well; like a radar, some sensor mics, infrared scanners, and a somewhat satellite microwave uplink. There was a large metallic grid-like mechanism built onto the rooftop as well, with multicolored wiring on mostly its very top lid; two medium-sized tubes ran around the driver's back side of the vehicle, a set of ladders on the other side end of the car, and its license plate was entitled the "_Ecto-Muertos_."

The sheer sight of this vehicle terrorized Maria by the horror of it, and what was worse is that it had an unusual logo painted on the driver's door side, looking like a human with a large "No" sign wrapped around his body. At that moment, Maria began to fear of who or what it is that's driving this hearse must be something so evil that it rids the world of humans.

The black hearse stops as well did the parade in front of the city hall, where a short zombie, that seemed to look an awful lot like the New York City mayor, stood at the large steps of the building as he seemed to be waiting for whatever was coming out of the car, itself. Soon the vehicle doors open, and out came four hideous and grotesquely looking figures each dressed in khaki uniforms that are old and tattered and had the same "No Human" logo patched onto the right shoulder top of their sleeves, indicating that these creatures are the human exterminators.

Maria watched with curiosity as she studied the bizarre appearances of what these creatures look like. One was a tall figure, looking like a normal man, but appeared to be a skeletal-like vampire form with glowing yellow eyes and light brown iris, pointy ears, and sharp fangs; he had a little trouble walking at first but he kept his balance in good condition as he stepped out of the hearse, and there was a nametag sewn on his left chest that was entitled "**_Creepman_**". The second creature was another skeletal stature, but this one had gills and a large tentacle on the back of his neck, his eyes looked exactly like fish eyes, his uniform was covered with barnacles and a few reefs located on one shoulder, a large back fin was seen to the side, the left hand had small tentacles as fingers, while the right had some barnacles and a couple of the fingers were small crab legs, and his nametag was shown as "**_Spanglerfish_**"; truly, this one was the most frightening Maria had ever seen.

The third exterminator looked like two halves sewn into one; the right side looked like a normal human with the acceptation of decomposition along the way, while the left had sharp fangs (one on the top and one on the lower jaw), one dead eye, skin was nearly coal black and deteriorating, some moles were present around his neck, a pointy ear, sharp fingernails, and the nametag patch on his left chest was titled "**_Nev'rmore_**".

The fourth and final exterminator didn't reveal much, as Maria only noticed the back side of his head and body, looking like a normal appearance of a human, and she didn't see a hint of his nametag either, but figures it was another zombie as well and probably looked even more grotesquely hideous than his colleagues.

With all four of these creatures present they all stepped upon the city hall steps to meet the mayor, awaiting what they were going to be told of once the parade was over. The mayor then starts to speak while patting all the monsters on their individual shoulders as a token of appreciation.

"As you all may know this parade marks another token of our traditions to the upcoming holidays of old; however, this is fairly not the main issue, no, but rather an important day to admire one of the city's greatest heroes here in **_Boo York City_**. It gives me great pleasure to honor these four heroic exterminators for another job well done; not since that terrible scare last night, these corpses once again proved that humans are an absolute destruction to our society. So, by the city council and the state of _Boo York_, I hereby dub the _Peoplebusters_ our grand heroes of the year!"

All the citizens cheer by the mayor's speech as he handed each of the monstrous exterminators a small medal of honor for keeping the city safe from any human presence. Maria stares shockingly at the ceremony, realizing who these creatures truly are.

"_Boo York City_?! _**Peoplebusters**_?!" She cried with a slightly shrieking voice that blended in with the citizens' cheering. "Oh my God; this explains everything, but where's Eric?!"

Then, without letting the townsfolk hear, the mayor took a step forward to the Peoplebusters and whispered to them. "You do realize that after this ceremony we have to shut down your company immediately. After that crazy fiasco in _Coffin Park West_, the city council had no choice but to make sure there's no repeat of this. I'm sorry to say this, but the Peoplebusters are no more; is that understood?"

One of the exterminators, Spanglerfish, replies with an unsettling tone. "Understood sir."

Then the Peoplebusters walked away back into their hearse, and while they board into the car, the unidentified exterminator suddenly smells the decaying air, somehow sensing there was a _warm_ presence nearby. He was about to turn to go examine, but was grabbed by _Creepman_, who immediately convinces the colleague to get in the vehicle. Once every one of the Peoplebusters were inside, they finally drove away down the street.

Meanwhile, after Maria witnessed the whole event, an unnatural thought occurred to her as she walked further into the alley, making herself as much unseen as possible. "So, if these… _Peoplebusters_ are what's keeping this city safe from humans, then it's possible that they might've taken… Eric!"

Then Maria took another thought of the Peoplebusters, thinking of exactly _where_ their headquarters might be located; at that moment, she felt she really _knew_ where to start. "I think I've got a pretty good idea of where these Peoplebusters' HQ is located."

About an hour passed; Maria arrived into a very grotesque area of what is known as Boo York City, the Tribeca area, and came across _14 North Mourn Street_ as she sees a spitting image of the firehouse back in New York City. She stood frozen at first, realizing that she was about to go inside a flip side version of her boss's old work station, and who knows what she may face once inside, and to hope that no Peoplebuster was present at the same time.

"Oh! I don't know, what if something goes wrong?" Maria moaned to herself as she stayed outside for awhile longer.

Inside the firehouse, the four exterminators gathered around what looked to be a garage section of their headquarters, as Spanglerfish prepared to make an announcement to his fellow colleagues at the time.

"Well gentlecorpse, now that the city has shut down our business, we have no choice but to vacate the firehouse immediately."

"Nice pep talk Egon." The skeletal vampire, Creepman, joked.

Then the two faced zombie, Nev'rmore, spoke with a worried voice. "So, what'll we do now, now that we're out of the job?"

"Well we can't leave our living science experiment in the grid alone here;" The mutated sea creature, _Egon Spanglerfish_, continued. "One of us will have to stay here and keep watch over and even take chances in studying the human as often as possible. I'm afraid I can't stay as I've already applied for another occupation at the university, so it's up to one of you to stay behind."

"Yyeeaahhhh… Not it!" Creepman replied. "See you all at the first reunion."

"Oh Peter." Nev'rmore replied with an agitated voice. "Still, I can't take it either, sorry. I've actually started to go back to my old job after hearing what's been happening here right after that big bust in Coffin Park West."

"I'm sorry to hear that Winston." Egon said. "It's been truly an honor working with you."

Then the unidentified monster from before spoke with a confident voice. "I'll do it."

"What?!" Winston and Peter cried.

"Well why not? This'll give me an opportunity to conduct my own researches. I haven't really looked for any other jobs in this city, so I might as well hold down the fort here, until I do find a new job that is."

Egon walked up to the monster and patted him on the shoulder. "Are you _sure_ you want to do this?"

"Absolutely."

"(Sigh)… Alright then. I'll check up on you every so often or less if you'd like."

"Okay."

After the conversation finally ends, only Egon, Winston, and Peter each began to leave the firehouse without ever thinking of looking back, even for their fourth colleague's sake.


	6. Chapter 5: Proposal with the Dead

**_Chapter Five: Proposal with the Dead_**

Maria, still hidden in the shadows across the street from where the Peoplebusters headquarters are located, cautiously waits for the right moment to see if the human exterminators themselves would finally leave the area. Then, after a long but slow hour, three of the Peoplebusters, _Peter Creepman_, _Egon Spanglerfish_, and _Winston Nev'rmore_, all left the firehouse, each with looks of worry and disappointment.

Once the three exterminators left all of the Tribeca area, it was now Maria's chance to investigate the old firehouse for herself.

At first she stops in front of the main entrance, feeling second thoughts of going inside; but after a moment to herself, Maria wanted to just go in, find Eric, escape, and bring him back to New York City without ever feeling the guilt of ridiculing him into danger. Soon, Maria finally opens the large doors slowly and tiptoes inside.

Maria looks around the decaying architecture, searching for any sign of actual life occupying the place. "Hello? I-Is anyone here?!" Maria asked with a worried voice. "Eric? Eric, are you in here?!"

As Maria steps further into the garage section of the old firehouse, she couldn't help but examine the ghastly and repulsive interior of the place; cobwebs covered nearly every square inch, mildew and fungus hung on some parts of the wall, some actual sea barnacles and coral grew on most parts of the ground floor, and there were even some rotting flesh left on a couple tables seen across once corner near the back office space, where a receptionist's desk stood in place. She then notices a rather medium sized containment unit, small enough to fit only one animal… or even a _person_ for that matter; Maria walks up to the grid and examines the inside through the large, thick, and impenetrable glass case to see if anyone was present inside, though _hoping_ in her mind, that there wouldn't be. Then, after a few seconds, a large male hand instantaneously presses up against the glass, startling Maria in a very shocked manner; there was only one occupant truly trapped inside this prison, was none other than Eric Wadestone, himself, as Maria sees him emerge from the dark shadows beneath the glass cage, looking to be scared himself. Maria charges herself back over to the area and gently taps on the glass case, careful not to attract any attention, even from the four mutated creatures from before.

Eric responds as he noticed Maria's presence; he tries to answer with a warning. "Maria?! W-What're _you_ doing here?! You have to get out of here before those things catch you too!"

However, seeing that Eric was contained behind a sound proof glass case, it was practically hard for Maria to make out what Eric was trying to say. Then, as Eric tries again to ward off Maria, a large shadow was slowly emerging right behind Maria herself, casting right over her, and neither she nor Eric even noticed.

"Eric,? Eric, I-I can't hear you, what're you trying to tell me?!" Maria panicked as she even tries to figure out a way to open the glass unit to set Eric free. "Hang on, I'll try and break this glass open!"

Momentarily, Maria finds a nearby wrench laying on a rotting old table next to the containment grid; she grabs it quickly, but just as she was about to use it to break open the case, Eric finally notices the looming shadow and tries to grab Maria's attention one more time, or it would be too late.

"MARIA! Look out, behind you!"

Suddenly, without realizing the situation, the same shadow immediately grabs Maria by the arm and instantly turns her body around, grabbing the wrench from her hand and forces her to the ground! Maria faces the silhouetted figure, who spoke with a conniving male voice.

"I don't think so! He's not going anywhere… and neither should _you_!"

After throwing the wrench over to the side, the figure's voice continues while Maria, who was too shocked at first to reply, barely seeing this new individual with the naked eye, though hardly seeing the grin on its face.

"Well, well, well look what we have here; another human, and a _female_ too."

Momentarily, Maria finally replies in her defense. "Who are you? What're you doing with Eric?!"

"That's none of your own business," The voice replied as he prepares to grab Maria. "Other than the fact he will be part of a scientific experiment in which _I_ will be taking part of, and now _you_ will join him!"

"Experiment?! W-What kind of, I mean, - W-What're you going to do?! You can't do this, Eric isn't worth it!"

"Then maybe like _all_ humans, he shouldn't have ever come into this world, and neither _you_ should've come as well!"

Then as the figure grabs Maria by the arm, his limb was shown in the light, all decaying with patches of different skin types sewn poorly onto him; Maria gasps by the sheer sight, and even Eric who was still trapped inside the grid, tries to free himself as he knocks violently onto the glass case. But as the figure readies himself to take Maria away, Maria herself spoke aloud once more as she abruptly sets herself free from the figure's grasp.

"Wait! …W-Why don't we - offer a _trade_ instead?"

The shadowy figure stares at Maria, puzzled by Maria's immediate response to her offering, and replies with a confusing tone in his raspy voice. "Oh? Well, what do you have in mind then?"

Maria looks over at the encased Eric for a brief moment, and the fact she doesn't have anything valuable on her to change the figure's mind; only one choice of trade popped into her head, it was the only logical option even for this unknown being who is wanting to look forward for these mysterious and possibly gruesome experiments. So Maria makes only one decision and replies with a soft voice, filling deeply with sheer grief.

"… Take only _me_ instead."

The figure's shadowy eyes widened in a confused state, noticing at first Maria was staring at Eric for the moment. Then a quick thought occurred through the individual's head, seeing what Maria meant by her exchange; she would rather give up her life to save another human's, and face a means of consequences involving this figure's own means of scientific experimentation. Another thought quickly occurred to him; despite this creature has been looking forward to perform its own researches, it somehow doesn't want to waste it all on just Maria. It takes another look at the female human, how much different she is, yet so beautiful, and how perhaps it might have other uses for her as not just a science experiment.

The figure then replies with a confused voice. "**_You_**?! You'd rather… take that man's place… for _yours_?"

Eric yells from inside the grid, trying to grab Maria's attention. "Maria, what're you doing; run! Save yourself!"

But Maria was unable to hear Eric's cry, and so she continues the deal. "If I did, would you let Eric go?"

The dark figure looks over at Eric once more, then looks back over at Maria with a small smirk on its face, even though he was still feeling a little confused, thinking why would Maria take Eric's place.

With a very deep pain of heartache, Maria explains of her final decision in order to spare Eric's life. "… You want to perform some studies on a human being, right? I-If you're… so much dedicated in wanting to do these… eh… _experiments_ on a human, then… (gulp) then it's a living human you'll have! Let it be **_me_**!"

The figure replies with a slightly confused voice. "Is that so? Let me get this straight; you'd rather have me perform my experimental researches on _you_ than that male human? What exactly is he worth to you?"

"Well… not a whole lot really, despite he's my ex-boyfriend; but believe me, Eric's not worth it to work on, he's not a very good subject to work with either, and he's really not the kind that's into science and anatomy, really. But please, just let him go and take me in his place instead."

Soon the creature takes another moment to think over Maria's decision and what would've happened if it had worked on Eric instead. Then it smiles over the conversation.

"I'll accept your offer, on _one_ condition;" The creature exclaims.

"_Anything_." Maria replies with the same soft but frightened voice.

"You must promise to _stay_ here, and not only be the business's living science experiment, but only _I_ should take responsibility for you as I plan to conduct further study on you for future researches. And not only that, _you_ should be the only one to stay with _me_… for the rest of your mortal life."

Maria stood frozen stiff, and swallowed some air in fear by the last part the figure explained; but she continues to listen as the stranger finishes. "_Trust_ me, you _will_ stay alive, and I will make sure of that; and no one, not even my colleagues should ever know about this."

Before Maria could answer to the deal, she asked the figure once more.

"Come into the light… please? I-I just… I want to see your face, before I answer."

Slowly, the figure creeps out of the shadows, revealing his tattered boot at first as he steps forward into the light, then his second foot steps in, only it wasn't a foot at all, rather a _human hand_ sewn right onto the leg, mimicking as a foot; then more of his whole body is revealed, showing his jumpsuit to be tightly worn onto him with only a couple parts of the clothing sewn and patched tight to make it fit properly, and his nametag was entitled **_Stenchz_**. His arms were made of patched skin types and unhealed wounds, and as his head is finally revealed, Maria notices only one distinctive feature she thought were never good to be true: she saw his eyes.

The figure's eyes were _exactly_ that from Maria's haunting nightmares from before; the left one's iris was a very pale shade of taupe with no pupil, making him blind as a bat, and the other eye also had no pupil, but only a very light shade of jade green was present, and indeed in surprise its sight was clear as daylight. Both of them truly glowed bright like two fiery stars, and they definitely looked very… _very hungry_, which frightened Maria the most.

What was disturbingly grotesque about this figure is that he looked an awful lot like Maria's boss, Ray Stantz, back in the living plane. Maria couldn't believe her own eyes, but what she is seeing before her is all there, a fate come true, a nightmare in which would never thought possible, but… she has _no_ choice.

Maria closes her eyes in the most terrible of frights she has ever felt, but only because of her choice in order to save Eric from a terrible fate, and finally replies with a soft but trembling voice. "… Alright… I'll stay with you. …Do we have a deal?"

The creature inches closer to Maria, smiles wide with a deviant expression that formed into a very charming and charismatic mood of excitement, and then he finally replies with his decaying teeth shone bright into the light.

"Agreed."

With the terms finally settled, the disfigured mutant walks over to the containment grid and opens it up, grabs Eric by the collar of his shirt and finally drags him down to the other side of the ground floor. At the same time, Eric tries to fight off the creature as he cries out to Maria in a panicking expression.

"Maria, what did you say?! Why aren't you helping me?!"

Without turning her back to see Eric as she was too frightened to look back at her fateful settlement in the works, Maria fell to her knees and replied with a sorrowful tone in her voice. "I-I… I belong to him now. … It's the only way."

"What're you talking about?!" Eric argued, struggling to get away. "What did you tell this monster, what did it say?!"

"She's no longer _your_ concern!" The creature remarked. "You're lucky I let you live."

And so the creature drags Eric downstairs into the basement and then brings him over to another large grid with an unusually small metallic doorway, looking to be the size of a doggie door; at first it was sealed off tight until the disfigured corpse throws Eric to the side for a brief moment, knocking him slightly unconscious. He started to operate a small decoding mechanism located to the side of the grid and pressed onto a coded sequence to open the hatch of the containment unit. Then, slowly, the seal opens, and a very bright light shines through.

While all this happened at the same time, Eric recovers slightly from his unconscious state and noticed the containment opening very slowly. He tries to run away, but the undead look-alike suddenly grabs Eric by the arms and drags him within seven feet from the opening of the grid and finally pushes him toward the opening; then, as if by magic, the light of the unit suddenly starts to shine mostly onto Eric, attracting onto his physical form like a magnetic effect, and it suddenly begins to suck in his entire self. Eric was suddenly forced right into the main reactor of this strange energy, sucking him in like the protonic effects of the ghost trap, but rather a reversal effect with the solidity of the human form. Finally, Eric disappears into the containment unit, trapping him inside.

The mutated corpse operates the decoding system once more, sealing the crypt-like unit in place; then, with the containment sealed shut, the creature walks over to another system, this time it had a lever to the side along with a five-digit numbered sequence. The monster looks over the occupancy of the unit, revealing it has only one in storage, and so he operates the numbered code in its scrambled order and finally pulls down the lever of the system. The whole containment grid started to whiz and whirr nonstop, the emergency lights were on, and the whole system was operating in a haywire-like systematic convulsion with the process.

The creature took a couple steps back, watching the containment grid do its part as it whirrs and buzzes rapidly; it seems this particular process was not done before, but the corpse continues to witness what the machine will do next. Then, the containment finally stops all its unexpected and unusual emergency functionality, its vents located from the lower corners of the grid opening operated for cooling itself afterwards, the incandescent lights turned green and the occupancy storage count rendered to a zero count, leaving the entire basement in tact, safely for another use.

Whatever this particular containment grid did, whatever the monster had done in operation, all that matters is that Eric was _not_ in storage no longer.

Upstairs at the ground floor, Maria knelt there in the middle of the floor, crying in grief over the deal she made, as well as to hope Eric was safe.

Momentarily, the dismembered corpse came back upstairs and notices Maria still kneeling on the ground, listening to her cry softly in sorrow. He stared at her for a long moment, noticing Maria was alone and frightened; he knew what had to be done, it was his job, and for now he just needed to make sure Maria was to be comfortable if she is to stay at the firehouse forever. So the creature walks slowly up to Maria and gently picks her up to her feet, causing her to startle at first as she cries more, and then he finally heard her speak with a frightened tone.

"I heard loud noises; what did you do to Eric?!"

The creature explained. "I've done no harm to that human; he's safe. What you heard back there was a much larger form of containment that helps a solid form locate from one place into another; in which case that Eric fellow was able to convert back into his original plane of existence. Trust me, your friend is safe and sound."

Maria did not want to believe him at first, but somehow something was telling her from deep inside her own soul that Eric is safe and out of harm's way, but in her mind she doesn't feel it though. Then the corpse gently grabs hold of Maria's arm and tugs her to his side as he spoke once more.

"Now come on, I'll take you upstairs to your room."

"M-My room?" Maria asked. "I thought -"

"Or would you prefer to stay here inside that containment grid?" The corpse asked, pointing over to the small containment unit from before.

"- No, I -"

"- Then come with me."

Before the creature leads Maria upstairs, Maria took a moment for herself and looks back at the small glass chamber Eric was once trapped in; she took another thought and considered if now that Eric's finally free, maybe the creature would go a little easy on her, but then assumed that since she is now a property of the **_Peoplebusters_** industry, who knows what could become of her once the monster's experiments begin, and that maybe in the end, she'll meet a fate worse than death.

The Peoplebuster looks back at Maria, noticing her meditative mood as she stares at the small unit. He smiles with a devious expression and crawls up behind Maria to get her attention; Maria turns and shrieks softly to find the monster strangely admiring her presence as he starts to graze the side of her face with a cold, dead hand.

"Now what'cha thinking about?" The creature asked.

Maria tries to reply as she kept herself steady from her fears. "Oh! Um… I-I'm not taking any second thoughts about this or anything; it's just that… now that I'm yours… I'll never be with my friends or family again."

"That's right," The Peoplebuster replies in a slightly sarcastic tone; then his smile grew wider, looking more deceitful than before, and then he starts to stroke and comb Maria's hair in a caressing manner with his hand. "But now you have **_me _**to watch over you. (Cackle) Life's full of tough choices, isn't it?"

Maria gazed nervously into the creature's eyes, feeling that soon she'll start to regret the whole deal, and it'll come back to haunt her.

Soon the monster takes Maria upstairs to the second floor, leading her across the first section of the next floor level, the _laboratory_, where there were lab tables full of rotting cadavers, mutated flesh, and clean bones picked by a couple of ravens that were chewing away at the leftover science experiments, enjoying every bit of their meal which were lying all over the place. Ectoplasmic residue were also dispersed around some corners of the lab, along with some laboratory equipment scattering around most of the area; some were clean or unsanitary, beakers, test tubes that were either shattered or in tact, Bunsen burners that most were missing some lighters, and many other instruments of scientific uses were located around most places of the laboratory.

Maria gazes in horror by the sheer sight of this horrible section as she walked by, afraid the creature will go back on his word if any of his so-called "researches" on her go terribly wrong, or worse does something in the most grim and vile way to her during the time. She couldn't help but cry however, over the fact she'll be spending the rest of her life with a hideous creature of the night, letting him conduct experiments on her own body for this unholy business of his. At the same time, the deformed figure looked back to see Maria gasp and tremble in fear by the environments of the laboratory and gently grabs her by the arm once more and takes her down across the next room, through the recreation center at the moment, and finally he lead her into the final room at the end of the hall and opened the door.

Inside, there were over six beds altogether; many of them had cobwebs, slime, old tattered, and decaying bed sheets, shredded pillows, one of the beds seem to be covered in sea reefs, barnacles, and other nautical plants; while another bed seemed to have someone or something hiding or rather living underneath as a pair of yellow eyes appeared, peeking through to see Maria and the creature walking inside this room.

"This is where you'll be sleeping for the time being;" The corpse explained but notices more of Maria's melancholic expressions. "Oh don't be like that, my dear, just look around you, the Peoplebusters' firehouse is _your_ new _home_ now."

Maria looks around the bunk room, then thought about the laboratory and the rest of the second floor while she was led to the bedroom, and finally replies with a soft, but low voice. "… M-M-My… my _new_ … (gulp) _**home**_?!"

Maria stood frozen by the monster's explanation, almost readying herself to faint, but she was then caught by the creature's arms as she nearly did so, and then looks up to see the monster gently pick her whole body up in both arms and started to carry her into the bunk room like a married couple would do after marriage. He takes her over to the first bed located at the cornerstone of another hall that leads to the bathroom in the back of the bunkroom, and gently lays her down flat on the decaying furniture and looms right over Maria at the moment with a very sinister grin on his face as he replies once more.

"Now, if you need anything, just call me up and I'll tend to anything you want."

Maria only nodded in agreement, then looks over to see the Peoplebuster slowly walk back over to the doorway of the bunk room, as he was about to leave; but then the creature smirks with a mischievous remark and a small laugh in the end before he closed the door.

"Enjoy your stay."


	7. Chapter 6: Undeadly Reminder

**_Chapter Six: An Undeadly Reminder_**

In the living plane, New York City to be exact, Central Park was at its most peaceful and tranquil state it has ever materialized; the birds chirped happily through their own songs as they communicate to one another, a handful of deer frolicked through the small meadow across the other side of the massive grounds, and other small woodland animals like chipmunks and squirrels were out gathering food for themselves as the cold months drew nearer in the year. The crisp morning air smelled sweet and decadent on this divine morning, as some of the citizens enjoyed each individual activities to fill their own leisure time.

Within the southeastern corridor of Central Park, where the strange tornado-like portal opening occurred a long while back, a young man laid unconscious onto the fresh cut grass for a few slow minutes until he awakens to find he was in the national park, _back_ in New York City. It was none other than Eric Wadestone, himself!

Eric recovers from his unconsciousness to find himself back in New York, but wonders at first if this place was nothing more but an illusion, and that he's still trapped in the Peoplebusters' headquarters. He stands up to his feet to walk around, and touched the trees and the many greenery of this public park, feeling most realistic as possible; he then notices some people, out and about with their fun activities held available in the park, and then frantically rushes up to them to see if they were real as well.

"E-Excuse me! Is this New York?! A-Are you really _real_ here?!" Eric cried in a frantic manner as he starts to wildly grab a few of the citizens as he was going into a delusional state.

Some of the people all panicked by Eric's insanity, while others simply pushed him away or either knocked him out of it as Eric continued to grab the public's attention.

"Hey! Watch it!" A woman panicked as Eric grabbed her arm.

"Get off her ya creep!" A man pushed Eric to the side, letting go of the woman.

"Move it jackass!" A hefty black woman knocks Eric out with her large purse.

"Out of my way!" A jogger yelled as he kicked Eric toward a couple feet away from the public area.

Then Eric finally bumped himself into two bums, exactly the same ones that were interviewed by the media awhile back, and the street hobos began to push Eric out toward the street, with the first bum, replying.

"Hey! Watch where ya goin' buddy!"

"This may be New York, but _some_ people just have no sense of _class_." The second bum remarked.

Afterwards, Eric laid flat on the concrete sidewalk outside of the public park, feeling slightly unconscious after the bums threw him away like useless trash; but momentarily, Eric looks around once more, seeing the surroundings to be in its normal, average, and _living_ state as he finally realizes he was truly back home in New York City, NY.

"(Sigh) Okay… It's New York." Eric sighed in relief.

Momentarily, Eric finally stands up to his feet and brushed himself off from being thrown a few times by the citizens, but at the same time he began to think about what had just happened awhile ago; he starts remembering how Maria had actually come to his rescue, and thought maybe she's finally come to her senses and to finally crawl back into his own arms once again. The true thought of Maria finally being back with him tickled him pink at the moment, and felt maybe she even escaped the evil Peoplebusters' clutches as well. So Eric begins to search for Maria back in the public park, thinking maybe she's lying unconscious in the same spot where Eric was before.

Nearing the middle of the park, where the unusual storm cloud appeared last time and where Eric was first awaken from his short comatose, Eric found there was no other presence in the community grounds, no absolute sign of Maria was found anywhere in Central Park. At that moment, Eric began to worry; he searched all over the neighborhood, wondering if Maria had even come back at all, or even _worse_, which he didn't even want to face the very thought of it in his mind as he continued.

With no sign of Maria in the park, Eric decided to check in Maria's condominium back in 75 Central Park West; within the next hour, he arrived at the front entrance of Maria's apartment, and starts knocking repeatedly to see if Maria herself would answer.

"Maria? Maria, a-are you there?!" He cried.

Eric then paused at the moment after knocking on the door in a slightly vicious but mostly troubled manner, as it nearly bruised his fist black as coal. He waited for a long while to hear an answer, but _nothing_, not even a simple _Hello_ was heard from inside. Finally, Eric rummaged through his pants pockets and pulled out a small key and frantically tries to unlock the apartment door open, as he actually kept a spare key to Maria's condo when he and Maria were still together a long time ago.

Once the door was opened, Eric rushes into the complex and starts to look high an low, trying to find if Maria was in her home.

"Maria?! Where are you?!" Eric yelled in a frantic craze.

After a long and slow hour and a half, Eric finally stops his search through the condo and immediately realizes that Maria was absolutely nowhere in sight and worst of all, he felt that Maria hasn't escaped the undead realm **_at all_**.

"No. No, this can't be true;" Eric cried with his expression beginning to turn into a more anxious and hysterically fearful look thought impossible to form. "S-She can't still be there - w-with that - that **_monster_**?!"

In the bunk room of the Peoplebusters headquarters early the next morning, poor Maria laid there in one of the beds, crying in the most deepest of despair she had ever felt; she couldn't sleep a wink after what she had done, feeling that even though she didn't have any deep emotions for Eric, she only did what was right in her own heart, despite the consequences she is now facing. She looks diligently around the room while staying atop the bed, seeing cobwebs located just above her head, filled with hungry spiders as most of them were trapping their victims into their cocoon-like textures of the web; Maria then sees for a quick moment a small cockroach crawling across the floor from where she was located until it was suddenly snatched by a small mutated creature with long and skinny arms and legs and had jaws that could bite off the tip of a finger sprung out from underneath Maria's bed and scuttled back to chow down on its meal.

Maria curls herself together in fear by the sight of that monster, and looks up at the outside of the window that was located right across her location, looking up at the eclipsed moon that mimicked as the morning sun; but she whimpered heavily over the fact that she may never escape this horrible firehouse, let alone all of this undead plane of existence.

"(Whimper, sob) Oh Eric, you've **_really_** done it to me this time!" Maria cried, blaming her current actions on Eric.

Suddenly, within a few minutes, the bunk room's door opens in a slightly aggressive manner, revealing to be none other than the hideous Peoplebuster, whom Maria made the long-term deal with; his eyes burned with eagerness, and his smile, widening with pleasure and quite an amount of drool alongside, as he stepped into the room while walking over toward Maria. At the same time, all the small and tiny creatures of the night scattered by the monster's entrance, hiding themselves as if they were truly frightened of the beast, himself. Maria at first, had startled by the sudden opening of the bedroom door, but quickly notices the creature in her presence as he walked up to her with ease.

Through the tremendous of fears, Maria instantly scooted herself back against the wall of where she was laying as she tries to keep herself at bay from the Peoplebuster, while the monster himself nears right toward the frightened human, and instantaneously grabs her by the arm and waist and carries her right out of the bunk room as he hears Maria cry out in anger and distress.

"NO! WAIT, WHERE'RE YOU TAKING ME?! PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW - AAAAAHHH!"

Then the deformed Peoplebuster took Maria over to the laboratory where he laid her down flat onto an empty operating bed, and began to take a couple leather straps that were sewn onto each side of the contraption and started to tie Maria down tightly so she wouldn't struggle much. Momentarily afterwards, the creature commence forward on preparing himself to perform the experimentation as he pulls out some equipment to get the research underway; Maria meanwhile, studies the beast on what he was about to do, until she looks over on the other side of the table where she lays and suddenly notices another operating table across her, only what laid atop there is truly a more terrifying sight than that of the Peoplebuster, himself.

Maria saw, firsthand, was a rotting skeleton with some of its meat still decomposing onto itself, small earthworms that were crawling around the skeletal face, and a small crow cawing and pecking at its meal! She screams in the most monstrous of fearful expressions and instantaneously begins to struggle for her life as she tries to wriggle herself free from the leather straps of the operating bed, until the Peoplebuster quickly holds her down from her resistance and tightens the leathering so she wouldn't strive more.

"Why are you doing this?!" Maria cries with fearful tears shedding slightly. "What is it about this '_experiment_' that's so important to you?! What makes you think- _this_- will prove anything?!"

In a slightly annoyed but calming tone in his voice, the Peoplebuster explains to Maria of his plans. "If you must know, it's all a part of the business, it's what we do to conduct our own researches of the living, and it's what we do to keep humans like you from ever - our way of death. You'll possibly never understand it, but it's _my_ job, and I intend to keep it that way."

"Then let me go! Find some other shmuck to kill for your own pleasure, or how about you go mutilate one of your own kind and perform your own experiments on him, or maybe -"

"It _doesn't work_ that way!" The creature yelled as he grab hold of Maria's mouth to shut her up. "We need a solid form, a _living_ body to research over, and to conduct further study so we could eliminate any unwanted guests in relation before a terrible calamity wreaks havoc upon us!"

The entire laboratory fell into silence afterwards; poor Maria laid there helpless on the operating table with the Peoplebuster's eyes staring straight amongst her own, glowing bright with the hunger she feared from her nightmares, and with no hope of escaping this undead world, Maria had no choice but to submit upon the terrible things in which the creature had to prepare himself for.

Momentarily, the Peoplebuster's devious smile returned to him, with more drool dripping down his lower jaw, and the droplets of his saliva slowly dripped down atop Maria's chest while he takes his one hand that was covering Maria's mouth for awhile and moved it across her face, leading it down toward the edge of her neck. His eyes nearly squinted with charm, looking down deeper into Maria's own eyes, and then he finally spoke in a reminding tone.

"Don't forget, my dear, we made a deal, remember? **_You belong… to me now_**."

Soon afterwards, the Peoplebuster grabbed the nearest pair of latex gloves to put on, and as he did so, he reaches over to grab the first tool he sees from the little operating tray that was located within a foot near the operating bed. He picked up a small scalpel and begins to sharpen it slightly; then, as Maria witnesses the creature holding up the small cutting tool, she immediately faints by the sheer sight of the instrument, knocking herself out.

The monster looks over at Maria as he set the scalpel back down on the little tray, and snickers as he spoke once more. "Well now, that's more like it. But, just in case…"

Then the Peoplebuster reaches over the tool tray once more and picks up a small needle, with its tube filled with a clear medicinal drug, _anesthetic_.


End file.
